System and method for ensuring data integrity on a removable hard drive

摘要

A system and method for maintaining data integrity in computer systems which have removable hard drives. The system and method of the present invention ensures that a disk drive which is reinserted into the computer system is the drive used to boot the operating system. When the computer system boots, the system reads the unique drive identification information from the hard drive and stores this identification information in memory for later use. Later, the computer system may be powered down or placed in a suspend state where the hard drive may be removed and a new drive inserted. When the computer system resumes and first requires access to the hard drive, the system and reads the drive identification information from the drive and compares the drive identification obtained from the drive with the drive identification information stored in memory at boot time. If the two sets of identification information are identical, then control is returned to the native operating system and access is allowed to the drive. In this case, since the two sets of drive identification information are identical, the same drive is comprised in or has been reinserted in the computer system, and thus operation can proceed. If the two sets of drive identification are not identical, then the system powers off the drive and reports to the user that the drive installed in the computer system is not the expected drive, i.e., is not the drive used to boot the system.