Recovering a system that has experienced a fault

Abstract

A method and system of recovering a system that has experienced a fault includes a backup device to enable access of a network through the interface in response to the fault. The system includes a main operational portion that controls operation of the system under normal conditions. However, if a fault occurs, then the backup device can be selected to take over control of the system so that data can be retrieved from a backup storage to recover the system. The backup device includes software and/or hardware components to enable the system to access a network even though the main operational portion may not be functioning properly.

1 . A system comprising: 
 a processor;    an interface to a network;    a BIOS routine executable on the processor;    a storage element containing a flag to indicate if a fault has occurred in the system; and    a backup device to enable access of the network through the interface,    wherein the BIOS routine loads software from the backup device for execution on the processor in response to the flag indicating failure in the system,    wherein the software is executable to access a remote backup storage over the network.    
   
   
       2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the software is executable to retrieve image data from the backup storage, and wherein the image data is used to recover the system.  
   
   
       3 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the flag indicates if a fault has occurred with a disk drive, and wherein the software is executable to scan the disk drive to identify a first portion of the disk drive that is defective, and a second portion of the disk drive that is not defective, the software to store the image data to the second portion of the disk drive.  
   
   
       4 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the interface comprises a network stack having an Internet Protocol (IP) layer, wherein the backup device comprises a backup storage element containing the software adapted to perform communications through the network stack including the IP layer to the network.  
   
   
       5 . The system of  claim 4 , wherein the software comprises a browser.  
   
   
       6 . A method of performing error recovery in a system, comprising: 
 detecting if an operating portion of the system has experienced a fault;    setting a flag to indicate that the operating portion of the system has experienced a fault;    during a boot process, a BIOS routine determining whether the flag is set;    in response to determining the flag is set, accessing a backup device in the system to load software for execution;    the software communicating through a network stack over a network to retrieve an image containing user data and an operating system.    
   
   
       7 . The method of  claim 6 , further comprising recovering the system using the image.  
   
   
       8 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the software comprises a browser, and wherein the software communicating through the network stack over a network to retrieve the image is in response to a recover command received by the browser.