DETAILED ACTION
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
2. A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office Action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 02-06-2026 has been entered.
3. Applicant's amendment and response received 02-06-2026, responding to the 11/20/2025 Office Action provided in the rejections of claims 1-12, wherein at least independent claims 1, 5 and 9 have been amended, and claims 13-16 has been added. Claims 1-16 remain pending in the application; which has been fully considered by the Examiner.
Response to Arguments
4. Applicant’s arguments with respect to newly amended independent claims 1, 5, and 9 and claims 2-4, 5-8 and 10-16 on pages 6-9 of the response have been fully considered but they are not persuasive and are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection- see Xie (Art newly made of record), Vogt (Art newly made of record) as, Gesquiere (Art newly made of record) and Sudhakar (Art newly made of record) as applied below, as they further teach such use.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
5. The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
6. Claims 1, 2, 5, 6, 9, 10 and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang et al., US 2003/0182411 (hereinafter Wang) in view of Xie, CN 101650662 in view of Vogt et al., US Patent 6,681,304 (hereinafter Vogt).
In regards to claim 1, Wang teaches:
A computer comprising: (p. 1, ([0008], see a method for updating or replacing a current operating software and current files with new operating software and new files).
a storage having a first partition in which a current version of software is written (p. 1, [0012], see prior to replacement, the current operating software and current files reside in an active region of a network element) and (p. 2, [0014], the network element has a processing element module (PEM) and a persistent storage module (PSM) and the active region is partitioned or distributed between the PEM and PSM. The non-active region is also partitioned or distributed between the PEM and PSM. In this embodiment, the current files are saved in the active region of the PSM and in the active region of the PEM).
a processor configured to: control the storage (Fig. 1, CPU).
write the new version of the software to the second partition (p. 5, claim 1, b) downloading a new operating software to said non-active region; c) installing said new operating software in said non-active region; f) rebooting said network element such that said active region and said non-active region are swapped, thereby replacing said current operating software working with said current files with said new operating software working with said updated file) (emphasis added).
Wang doesn't explicitly teach:
invalidate the swap area of the second partition when updating the current version of the software to a new version of the software.
However, Xie teaches such use: (Abstract, see the storage device is a readable and writable flash memory, and at least includes: a first partition for storing the booting part of the embedded system; a main partition and the slave partitions have the same capacity and are used to store parameters and data needed for firmware startup and upgrade… judging the firmware attributes of the two partitions; verifying the current cyclic redundancy check code of the slave partition is valid. If it is valid, erase the data of the master partition, copy the content of the slave partition to the master partition, and then start from the master partition; if it is invalid, start the program image from the master partition. In the invention, the flash memory is divided into partitions, and only one memory is used to realize the system function).
Wang and Xie are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor, software updating.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, having the teaching of Wang and Xie before him or her, to modify the system of Wang to include the teachings of Xie, as a system for firmware starting and upgrading, and accordingly it would enhance the system of Wang, which is focused on updating operating software, because that would provide Wang with the ability to carry out selective firmware startup, as suggested by Xie (Abstract, p. 5, last para.).
Wang and Xie, in particular Wang doesn’t explicitly teach:
having a second partition provided as a swap area configured to serve as system swap memory.
However, Vogt teaches such use: (column 9, lines 43-50, see If a new file is being written to an (empty) erased portion of hidden storage, the file can be written without the need to utilize the non-volatile swap space. But if the command is to update (modify) an existing file, and hidden storage is full, it is necessary to utilize the non-volatile swap memory. The contents of the present hidden storage along with the updated file are written into the swap storage space).
Wang, Xie and Vogt are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor, software updating.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, having the teaching of Wang, Xie and Vogt before him or her, to modify the system of Wang and Xie, in particular Wang, to include the teachings of Vogt, as a system for providing hidden storage, and accordingly it would enhance the system of Wang, which is focused on updating operating software, because that would provide Wang with the ability to to add value to systems which contain flash memory by embedding security primitives in the flash memory that can easily be applied to standards based security solutions as suggested by Vogt (column 9, lines 43-50, column 12, lines 8-15).
In regards to claim 2, Wang teaches:
boot a system provided with the new version of the software after successfully writing the new version of the software, and utilize the first partition as the swap area for the system provided with the new version of the software (p. 5, claim 1, b) downloading a new operating software to said non-active region; c) installing said new operating software in said non-active region; f) rebooting said network element such that said active region and said non-active region are swapped, thereby replacing said current operating software working with said current files with said new operating software working with said updated file) (emphasis added).
In regards to claim 5, Wang teaches:
A software update method for a computer including (p. 1, ([0008], see a method for updating or replacing a current operating software and current files with new operating software and new files).
a storage having a first partition in which a current version of software is written (p. 1, [0012], see prior to replacement, the current operating software and current files reside in an active region of a network element) and (p. 2, [0014], the network element has a processing element module (PEM) and a persistent storage module (PSM) and the active region is partitioned or distributed between the PEM and PSM. The non-active region is also partitioned or distributed between the PEM and PSM. In this embodiment, the current files are saved in the active region of the PSM and in the active region of the PEM).
a processor configured to control the storage, the method comprising: (Fig. 1, CPU).
writing the new version of the software to the second partition (p. 5, claim 1, b) downloading a new operating software to said non-active region; c) installing said new operating software in said non-active region; f) rebooting said network element such that said active region and said non-active region are swapped, thereby replacing said current operating software working with said current files with said new operating software working with said updated file) (emphasis added).
Wang doesn't explicitly teach:
invalidating the swap area of the second partition when updating the current version of the software to a new version of the software.
However, Xie teaches such use: (Abstract, see the storage device is a readable and writable flash memory, and at least includes: a first partition for storing the booting part of the embedded system; a main partition and the slave partitions have the same capacity and are used to store parameters and data needed for firmware startup and upgrade… judging the firmware attributes of the two partitions; verifying the current cyclic redundancy check code of the slave partition is valid. If it is valid, erase the data of the master partition, copy the content of the slave partition to the master partition, and then start from the master partition; if it is invalid, start the program image from the master partition. In the invention, the flash memory is divided into partitions, and only one memory is used to realize the system function).
Wang and Xie are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor, software updating.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, having the teaching of Wang and Xie before him or her, to modify the system of Wang to include the teachings of Xie, as a system for firmware starting and upgrading, and accordingly it would enhance the system of Wang, which is focused on updating operating software, because that would provide Wang with the ability to carry out selective firmware startup, as suggested by Xie (Abstract, p. 5, last para.).
Wang and Xie, in particular Wang doesn’t explicitly teach:
a second partition provided as a swap area configured to serve as system swap memory.
However, Vogt teaches such use: (column 9, lines 43-50, see If a new file is being written to an (empty) erased portion of hidden storage, the file can be written without the need to utilize the non-volatile swap space. But if the command is to update (modify) an existing file, and hidden storage is full, it is necessary to utilize the non-volatile swap memory. The contents of the present hidden storage along with the updated file are written into the swap storage space).
Wang, Xie and Vogt are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor, software updating.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, having the teaching of Wang, Xie and Vogt before him or her, to modify the system of Wang and Xie, in particular Wang, to include the teachings of Vogt, as a system for providing hidden storage, and accordingly it would enhance the system of Wang, which is focused on updating operating software, because that would provide Wang with the ability to to add value to systems which contain flash memory by embedding security primitives in the flash memory that can easily be applied to standards based security solutions as suggested by Vogt (column 9, lines 43-50, column 12, lines 8-15).
In regards to claim 6, Wang teaches:
booting a system provided with the new version of the software after successfully writing the new version of the software; and utilizing the first partition as the swap area for the system provided with the new version of the software (p. 5, claim 1, b) downloading a new operating software to said non-active region; c) installing said new operating software in said non-active region; f) rebooting said network element such that said active region and said non-active region are swapped, thereby replacing said current operating software working with said current files with said new operating software working with said updated file) (emphasis added).
In regards to claim 9, Wang teaches:
A computer readable medium storing instructions for performing a software update executable by a computer (p. 1, ([0008], see a method for updating or replacing a current operating software and current files with new operating software and new files).
the computer including a storage having a first partition in which a current version of software is written a(p. 1, [0012], see prior to replacement, the current operating software and current files reside in an active region of a network element) and (p. 2, [0014], the network element has a processing element module (PEM) and a persistent storage module (PSM) and the active region is partitioned or distributed between the PEM and PSM. The non-active region is also partitioned or distributed between the PEM and PSM. In this embodiment, the current files are saved in the active region of the PSM and in the active region of the PEM).
a processor, the instructions causing the computer to perform operations comprising: (Fig. 1, CPU).
writing the new version of the software to the second partition (p. 5, claim 1, b) downloading a new operating software to said non-active region; c) installing said new operating software in said non-active region; f) rebooting said network element such that said active region and said non-active region are swapped, thereby replacing said current operating software working with said current files with said new operating software working with said updated file) (emphasis added).
Wang doesn't explicitly teach:
invalidating the swap area of the second partition when updating the current version of the software to a new version of the software.
However, Xie teaches such use: (Abstract, see the storage device is a readable and writable flash memory, and at least includes: a first partition for storing the booting part of the embedded system; a main partition and the slave partitions have the same capacity and are used to store parameters and data needed for firmware startup and upgrade… judging the firmware attributes of the two partitions; verifying the current cyclic redundancy check code of the slave partition is valid. If it is valid, erase the data of the master partition, copy the content of the slave partition to the master partition, and then start from the master partition; if it is invalid, start the program image from the master partition. In the invention, the flash memory is divided into partitions, and only one memory is used to realize the system function).
Wang and Xie are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor, software updating.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, having the teaching of Wang and Xie before him or her, to modify the system of Wang to include the teachings of Xie, as a system for firmware starting and upgrading, and accordingly it would enhance the system of Wang, which is focused on updating operating software, because that would provide Wang with the ability to carry out selective firmware startup, as suggested by Xie (Abstract, p. 5, last para.).
Wang and Xie, in particular Wang doesn’t explicitly teach:
a second partition provided as a swap area configured to serve as system swap memory.
However, Vogt teaches such use: (column 9, lines 43-50, see If a new file is being written to an (empty) erased portion of hidden storage, the file can be written without the need to utilize the non-volatile swap space. But if the command is to update (modify) an existing file, and hidden storage is full, it is necessary to utilize the non-volatile swap memory. The contents of the present hidden storage along with the updated file are written into the swap storage space).
Wang, Xie and Vogt are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor, software updating.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, having the teaching of Wang, Xie and Vogt before him or her, to modify the system of Wang and Xie, in particular Wang, to include the teachings of Vogt, as a system for providing hidden storage, and accordingly it would enhance the system of Wang, which is focused on updating operating software, because that would provide Wang with the ability to to add value to systems which contain flash memory by embedding security primitives in the flash memory that can easily be applied to standards based security solutions as suggested by Vogt (column 9, lines 43-50, column 12, lines 8-15).
In regards to claim 10, Wang teaches:
booting a system provided with the new version of the software after successfully writing the new version of the software; and utilizing the first partition as the swap area for the system provided with the new version of the software (p. 5, claim 1, b) downloading a new operating software to said non-active region; c) installing said new operating software in said non-active region; f) rebooting said network element such that said active region and said non-active region are swapped, thereby replacing said current operating software working with said current files with said new operating software working with said updated file) (emphasis added).
In regards to claim 13, Wang doesn't explicitly teach:
the first partition and the second partition have substantially the same storage capacity.
However, Xie teaches such use: (Abstract, see the storage device is a readable and writable flash memory, and at least includes: a first partition for storing the booting part of the embedded system; a main partition and the slave partitions have the same capacity and are used to store parameters and data needed for firmware startup and upgrade).
Wang and Xie are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor, software updating.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, having the teaching of Wang and Xie before him or her, to modify the system of Wang to include the teachings of Xie, as a system for firmware starting and upgrading, and accordingly it would enhance the system of Wang, which is focused on updating operating software, because that would provide Wang with the ability to carry out selective firmware startup, as suggested by Xie (Abstract, p. 5, last para.).
7. Claim 12 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang in view of Xie in view of Vogt in view of Banerjee et al., US 2012/0291021 (hereinafter Banerjee).
In regards to claim 1, the rejections above are incorporated respectively.
In regards to claim 12, Wang, Xie and Vogt, in particular Wang doesn’t explicitly teach:
the swap area is configured to (i) provide a virtual memory area for storing data when the swap area is in a validated state.
However, Banerjee teaches such use: (p. 7, [0073], see the download management component notifies the lower level components managing the cache offload (dvc) component to release the drive ready events to the components running within the Applications layer. Once this is complete, write caching is enabled for all volumes), (p. 3, [0032], see apart from storing the root partitions for each of the virtual machines, approximately half (50%) of the storage space from the storage device 32 typically is reserved for cache memory offload purposes) (emphasis added).
(11) not to provide the virtual memory area for storing data when the swap area is in an invalidated state when the current version of the software is being updated.
However, Banerjee teaches such use: (p. 11, claim 14, see moving the new firmware version solution bundle to the scratch area carved out of the P-cache area includes, prior to moving the new firmware version solution bundle to the scratch area carved out of the P-cache area, disabling write caching for storage volumes in a storage array external to the controller so that the P-cache area is not used by any guest virtual machines, logically disconnecting the storage device from the at least one guest virtual machine that uses the P-cache area, formatting the P-cache area using the first virtual machine manager, and mounting a temporary file system in the P-cache area using the first virtual machine manager) (emphasis added).
Wang, Xie and Vogt and Banerjee are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor, software updating.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, having the teaching of Wang, Xie and Vogt and Banerjee before him or her, to modify the system of Wang, Xie and Vogt, in particular Wang to include the teachings of Banerjee, as a system for firmware upgrade, and accordingly it would enhance the system of Wang, which is focused on updating operating software, because that would provide Wang with the ability to have a system firmware upgrade mechanism that upgrades the firmware or software for all storage applications running within the virtualization environment as an atomic operation, while also keeping the subsystem online and accessible to external hosts or initiators when the upgrade is being performed for the entire subsystem as suggested by Banerjee (p. 11, claim 14, p. 9, [0095]).
8. Claims 3, 4, 7, 8 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang in view of Xie in view of Vogt in view of Hass et al., US 2004/0214476 (hereinafter Hass).
In regards to claims 1 and 5 the rejections above are incorporated respectively.
In regards to claim 3, Wang, Xie and Vogt, in particular Wang doesn't explicitly teach:
the computer is further provided with an additional storage, wherein the processor is configured to utilize the additional storage as the swap area for a system provided with the current version of the software when invalidation of the swap area of the second partition fails.
However, Hass teaches such use: (p. 2, [0025], see if one memory unit fails, it is simply disconnected from the system when desired and replaced with a new unit, with the controller module copying the data stored in the remaining memory unit into the new one. The memory units 4, 6 are connected to the controller module 8 by separate sets of links 14 to enable the units' independent replacement).
Wang, Xie, Vogt and Hass are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor, software updating.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, having the teaching of Wang, Xie, Vogt and Hass before him or her, to modify the system of Wang, Xie, and Vogt, in particular Wang, to include the teachings of Hass, as a system for storage with symmetrical connections, and accordingly it would enhance the system of Wang, which is focused on updating operating software, because that would provide Wang with the ability to offer portability when combining applications and memory systems, as suggested by Hass (p. 2, [0025], p. 4, [0039]).
In regards to claim 4, Wang, Xie and Vogt, in particular Wang doesn't explicitly teach:
the additional storage device is removably coupled to the computer.
However, Hass teaches such use: (p. 2, [0025], see the memory units 4, 6 are connected to the controller module 8 by separate sets of links 14 to enable the units' independent replacement).
Wang, Xie, Vogt and Hass are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor, software updating.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, having the teaching of Wang, Xie, Vogt and Hass before him or her, to modify the system of Wang, Xie and Vogt, in particular Wang, to include the teachings of Hass, as a system for storage with symmetrical connections, and accordingly it would enhance the system of Wang, which is focused on updating operating software, because that would provide Wang with the ability to offer portability when combining applications and memory systems, as suggested by Hass (p. 2, [0025], p. 4, [0039]).
In regards to claim 7, Wang, Xie and Vogt, in particular Wang doesn't explicitly teach:
the computer further is provided with an additional storage, and the additional storage is utilized as the swap area for a system operating by using the current version of the software when invalidation of the swap area of the second partition fails.
However, Hass teaches such use: (p. 2, [0025], see if one memory unit fails, it is simply disconnected from the system when desired and replaced with a new unit, with the controller module copying the data stored in the remaining memory unit into the new one. The memory units 4, 6 are connected to the controller module 8 by separate sets of links 14 to enable the units' independent replacement).
Wang, Xie, Vogt and Hass are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor, software updating.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, having the teaching of Wang, Xie, Vogt and Hass before him or her, to modify the system of Wang, Xie, and Vogt, in particular Wang, to include the teachings of Hass, as a system for storage with symmetrical connections, and accordingly it would enhance the system of Wang, which is focused on updating operating software, because that would provide Wang with the ability to offer portability when combining applications and memory systems, as suggested by Hass (p. 2, [0025], p. 4, [0039]).
In regards to claim 8, Wang, Xie and Vogt, in particular Wang doesn't explicitly teach:
the additional storage is removably coupled to the computer.
However, Hass teaches such use: (p. 2, [0025], see the memory units 4, 6 are connected to the controller module 8 by separate sets of links 14 to enable the units' independent replacement).
Wang, Xie, Vogt and Hass are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor, software updating.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, having the teaching of Wang, Xie, Vogt and Hass before him or her, to modify the system of Wang, Xie, and Vogt, in particular Wang, to include the teachings of Hass, as a system for storage with symmetrical connections, and accordingly it would enhance the system of Wang, which is focused on updating operating software, because that would provide Wang with the ability to offer portability when combining applications and memory systems, as suggested by Hass (p. 2, [0025], p. 4, [0039]).
In regards to claim 11, Wang, Xie and Vogt, in particular Wang doesn't explicitly teach:
the computer is further provided with an additional storage, and the additional storage is utilized as the swap area for a system operating by using the current version of the software when invalidation of the swap area of the second partition fails.
However, Hass teaches such use: (p. 2, [0025], see if one memory unit fails, it is simply disconnected from the system when desired and replaced with a new unit, with the controller module copying the data stored in the remaining memory unit into the new one. The memory units 4, 6 are connected to the controller module 8 by separate sets of links 14 to enable the units' independent replacement).
Wang, Xie, Vogt and Hass are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor, software updating.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, having the teaching of Wang, Xie, Vogt and Hass before him or her, to modify the system of Wang, Xie and Vogt, in particular Wang, to include the teachings of Hass, as a system for storage with symmetrical connections, and accordingly it would enhance the system of Wang, which is focused on updating operating software, because that would provide Wang with the ability to offer portability when combining applications and memory systems, as suggested by Hass (p. 2, [0025], p. 4, [0039]).
9. Claims 14 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang in view of Xie in view of Vogt in view of Gesquiere et al., US 20100122246 (hereinafter Gesquiere).
In regards to claim 1, the rejections above are incorporated respectively.
In regards to claim 14, Wang, Xie and Vogt, in particular Wang doesn't explicitly teach:
after writing the new version of the software to the second partition, the processor is configured to switch a boot designation between the first partition and the second partition and reboot the computer to boot from the second partition.
However, Gesquiere teaches such use: (p. 1, [0004], see within a dual bank flash, the memory is split into two separate memory areas. During a remote upgrade, one bank is active and supports all services, whereas the new firmware is downloaded onto the second bank. When the download is complete, the gateway can switch from one bank with the old firmware to the other bank with the new firmware) and (Abstract, see downloading a rescue firmware to the nonvolatile memory from a server located on the network, the rescue firmware being adapted to allow the terminal to download the firmware from the server, rebooting the terminal with the second firmware and the rescue firmware, downloading a new version of the first and second firmware from the server to the nonvolatile memory, erasing the rescue firmware from the nonvolatile memory, and rebooting the terminal with the new version of the first and second firmware).
Wang, Xie, Vogt and Gesquiere are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor, software updating.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, having the teaching of Wang, Xie, Vogt and Gesquiere before him or her, to modify the system of Wang, Xie and Vogt, in particular Wang, to include the teachings of Gesquiere, as a system for robust firmware upgrade, and accordingly it would enhance the system of Wang, which is focused on updating operating software, because that would provide Wang with the ability to minimize service interruptions, as suggested by Gesquiere (p. 1, [0004], p. 5, [0091]).
In regards to claim 16, Wang, Xie and Vogt, in particular Wang doesn't explicitly teach:
execute a boot command after a boot flag is toggled in order to reboot the computer.
However, Gesquiere teaches such use: (p. 1, [0004], see within a dual bank flash, the memory is split into two separate memory areas. During a remote upgrade, one bank is active and supports all services, whereas the new firmware is downloaded onto the second bank. When the download is complete, the gateway can switch from one bank with the old firmware to the other bank with the new firmware) and (Abstract, see downloading a rescue firmware to the nonvolatile memory from a server located on the network, the rescue firmware being adapted to allow the terminal to download the firmware from the server, rebooting the terminal with the second firmware and the rescue firmware, downloading a new version of the first and second firmware from the server to the nonvolatile memory, erasing the rescue firmware from the nonvolatile memory, and rebooting the terminal with the new version of the first and second firmware).
Wang, Xie, Vogt and Gesquiere are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor, software updating.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, having the teaching of Wang, Xie, Vogt and Gesquiere before him or her, to modify the system of Wang, Xie and Vogt, in particular Wang, to include the teachings of Gesquiere, as a system for robust firmware upgrade, and accordingly it would enhance the system of Wang, which is focused on updating operating software, because that would provide Wang with the ability to minimize service interruptions, as suggested by Gesquiere (p. 1, [0004], p. 5, [0091]).
10. Claim 15 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang in view of Xie in view of Vogt in view of Gesquiere in view of Sudhakar et al., US 2008/0276123 (hereinafter Sudhakar).
In regards to claims 1 and 14, the rejections above are incorporated respectively.
In regards to claim 15, Wang, Xie, Vogt and Gesquiere, in particular Wang doesn't explicitly teach:
toggle a boot flag of the first partition from ON to OFF and toggle a boot flag of the second partition from OFF to ON in order to switch the boot designation.
However, Sudhakar teaches such use: (p. 2, [0018], see the partition table has a boot flag associated with each of the plurality of partitions. Each boot flag has a value indicating whether the associated partition is active or inactive. Boot code in the basic input/output system (BIOS) of MBR-based computing devices boots into a partition that is marked ‘active’ in the partition table in the MBR of the target computer-readable medium 206).
Wang, Xie, Vogt, Gesquiere and Sudhakar are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor, software updating.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, having the teaching of Wang, Xie, Vogt, Gesquiere and Sudhakar before him or her, to modify the system of Wang, Xie, Vogt and Gesquiere, in particular Wang, to include the teachings of Sudhakar, as a system for automated data recovery, and accordingly it would enhance the system of Wang, which is focused on updating operating software, because that would provide Wang with the ability to persist recovery information, the automation process state, and other information from the original operating system to the recovery environment in an automated manner as suggested by Sudhakar (p. 2, [0018], p. 4, [0035]).
Conclusion
11. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Goodman 7089547 teaches updating firmware stored in a rewritable non-volatile memory as a plurality of firmware code images having position dependent code and checks to determine whether any of the firmware code images of the non-volatile memory 104, e.g., code images 202 or 203 of FIG. 2, is defective or marked for non-use. If one of the firmware code images is defective or marked for non-use, the processor, in step 407 of FIG. 4, determines that the defective code image will be the code image that is overwritten by an update code image.
Bealkowski 5826075 teaches control means also includes an update code for updating the firmware in a selected memory. The automated store further includes means for allowing the computer system to recover automatically from invalid firmware stored in one of the memories, the subsystem 242 includes a plurality (e.g., two) of in-circuit reprogrammable (i.e., alterable) nonvolatile memory devices, bank 0 502 and bank 1 504. The memory devices or banks 502, 504 are of the semiconductor type such as the Intel 28F010 Flash Memory device described in Intel Memory Products 1991… The Intel 28F010 Flash Memory provides 128 kilobytes of data storage capacity.
12. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Evral Bodden whose telephone number is 571-272-3455. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm.
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/EVRAL E BODDEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2193