VIRTUAL STORAGE OF PORTABLE MEDIA FILES

Abstract

Storing and/or virtually compressing a file on a virtual file system associated with a portable media drive. The virtual file system includes the portable media drive and allocated storage of a storage server. The file partitioned into a local portion and at least one remote portion. The local portion is stored on the portable media drive and the remote portions are transferred to the storage server. For a virtually compressed file, the storage size of the file on the virtual file system is calculated as a function of the storage size of the local portion on the portable media drive.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating one example of a suitable computing system environment in which aspects of the invention may be implemented.

FIG. 2 is an exemplary flow diagram illustrating operation of a virtual compression program.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating local and remote storage of a virtual file system according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary user interface for a virtual file system.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary user interface for a virtual file compression program.

Claims

1. A method of storing files comprising: accessing, via a client computer, a source file stored on a portable media drive, said client computer being coupled to a remote storage server via a data communication network, said storage server having allocated storage associated with the portable media device;partitioning the source file into a plurality of portions; andstoring at least one of the portions of the source file in the allocated storage of storage server.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein partitioning the source file comprises transforming the source file such that data of the portions are noncontiguous.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein transforming the source file includes one or more of the following: real compression of the file; executing a block-sorting algorithm on the file; entropy encoding the file; and reorganizing the file.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein reorganizing the file includes one or more of the following: bit-wise reorganizing, nibble-wise reorganizing and byte-wise reorganizing.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the portions of the source file do not contain overlapping data of the file.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein each portion of the source file includes a reference to at least one other portion of the source file.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing at least one of the portions of the source file on the portable media drive, said portion stored on the portable media device being different than the portion stored in the allocated storage of the storage server.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising calculating a storage size of the source file in a virtual file system as a function of the storage size of the portion stored on the portable media drive.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising creating an identifier on the portable media drive, said identifier referencing the at least one of the portions of the source file in the allocated storage of storage server.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising creating an identifier in each of the portions of the source file for referencing at least one other of the portions of the source file.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the portions of the source file stored in the allocated storage of the storage server is stored as a separate discrete unit.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the portions of the source file is a packet.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the portions of the source file are of unequal size.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second portions of the file are of equal size.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more computer-readable media have computer-executable instructions for performing the method recited in claim 1.

16. A method for compressing a file associated with a virtual file system associated with a portable media drive, said virtual file system including the portable media drive and allocated storage of a storage server, comprising: connecting the portable media drive to a client computer, said client computer being different than the storage server and having access to the storage server;partitioning the file into a first portion and second portion;transferring the first portion to the allocated storage of storage server storing the second portion on the portable media drive; andcalculating a storage size of the file on the virtual file system as function of the storage size of the second portion on the portable media drive.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the storage size of the file on the virtual file system is approximately equal to a storage size of the second portion on the portable media drive.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein partitioning the source file comprises transforming the source file such that data of the portions are noncontiguous.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein transforming the source file includes one or more of the following: real compression of the file; executing a block-sorting algorithm on the file; entropy encoding the file; and reorganizing the file.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein reorganizing the file includes one or more of the following: bit-wise reorganizing, nibble-wise reorganizing and byte-wise reorganizing.

21. The method of claim 16, further comprising: partitioning the second portion into a third and fourth portion; andtransferring the third portion to the allocated storage of storage server;storing the fourth portion on the portable media drive; andcalculating the storage size of the file on the virtual file system as function of the storage size of the fourth portion on the portable media drive.

22. The method of claim 16, wherein the second portion does not contain data from the file and first portion contains all the data of the file; and wherein storage size of the file on the virtual file system is approximately equal to zero.

23. A method for decompressing a file associated with a virtual file system associated with a portable media drive, said virtual file system including the portable media drive and allocated storage of a storage server, comprising: connecting the portable media drive to a client computer, said client computer being different than the storage server and having access to the storage server;accessing a first portion associated with the file on the portable media drive;determining a reference to a second portion of the file from the first portion;retrieving the second portion to the allocated storage of storage server as a function of the reference;assembling from the first portion and second portions;storing the file on the local storage of the client computer; andcalculating a storage size of the file on the virtual file system as a function of the storage size of the file.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the local storage of the client computer includes one or more of the following: the connected portable media drive and a hard disk.

25. The method of claim 23, further comprising: determining a reference to a third portion of the file from the retrieved second portion;retrieving the third portion to the allocated storage of storage server as a function of the reference;assembling the file from the first portion, second portion and third portion;storing the file on the local storage of the client computer; andcalculating a storage size of the file on the virtual file system as a function of the storage size of the file.