TWI796904B - Recovery method and system - Google Patents

Abstract

A recovery method and system are provided. In an electronic apparatus, during a booting phase, a machine serial number of the electronic apparatus is sent to a cloud server through a boot firmware. The electronic apparatus receives a boot program corresponding to the machine serial number from the cloud server, and executes a small operating system through the boot program. Afterwards, in the electronic apparatus, the small operating system downloads a recovery file from the cloud server based on the machine serial number, and installs the recovery file.

Description

Restoration method and system

The present invention relates to a restoration mechanism, and in particular to a restoration method and system based on cloud services.

After the sale of general electronic products, if the machine needs to be restored, the consumer needs to send the entire machine to the supplier's customer service center, so it takes time to deliver the product. In addition, although there is a recovery function in the general operating system, it is necessary to enter the operating system to use the recovery function. Therefore, the restore function cannot be used when the machine cannot enter the operating system. Although you can use storage media such as flash drives or optical discs to create recovery stacks in advance, there is a risk of losing the recovery discs you have created in advance. In addition, in the post-epidemic era, the original service model also needs to be adjusted. Therefore, how to reduce physical contact but still maintain the same after-sales service quality is challenged.

The present invention provides a restoration method and system, which provide remote instant restoration service without time limit.

The reduction method of the present invention includes the following steps. In the electronic device, it includes: during the booting stage, sending the machine serial number of the electronic device to the cloud server through the boot firmware; receiving the startup program corresponding to the machine serial number from the cloud server; executing a small operating system through the startup program; The operating system downloads the recovery file from the cloud server based on the serial number of the machine; and installs the recovery file through the small operating system.

In one embodiment of the present invention, in the booting phase of the electronic device, after the machine serial number of the electronic device is transmitted to the cloud server through the boot firmware, the cloud server includes: after receiving the machine serial number from the electronic device, Based on a plurality of relevant information obtained by the serial number of the machine, an activation program is established; and the activation program is sent to the electronic device.

In an embodiment of the present invention, in the cloud server, it further includes: while transmitting the boot program to the electronic device, the boot configuration data file (Boot Configuration Database, BCD) corresponding to the machine serial number and the boot Manage the firmware file (Boot Manager Firmware) to the electronic device, wherein the boot configuration data file and the boot management firmware file cooperate with the startup program to execute the small operating system.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the step of downloading the restore file from the cloud server based on the machine serial number through the small operating system includes: connecting to the cloud server in the small operating system to obtain the corresponding machine serial number from the cloud server Image file information and cut area information; format the storage device of the electronic device into multiple partitions based on the cut area information through the small operating system; and download the corresponding restore file from the cloud server based on the image file information through the small operating system , and save the restore file to one of the partitions.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the step of installing the recovery file through the mini-OS includes: obtaining a deployment tool and system files from the recovery file through the mini-OS; and installing the system files through the deployment tool through the mini-OS.

The restoration system of the present invention includes: a cloud server and an electronic device. The electronic device is connected to the cloud server through the network. The electronic device is configured to: transmit the machine serial number of the electronic device to the cloud server through the boot firmware during the boot phase; receive the boot program corresponding to the machine serial number from the cloud server; execute the small operating system through the boot program; The system downloads the recovery file from the cloud server based on the serial number of the machine; and installs the recovery file through the small operating system.

Based on the above, the present disclosure utilizes the cloud server to provide the recovery file, so that the electronic device can download the most suitable recovery file from the cloud server when the operating system cannot be entered normally. Accordingly, the system restore service can be provided immediately, and the service time is not limited.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a restoration system according to an embodiment of the present invention. Please refer to FIG. 1 , the restoration system 100 includes an electronic device 110 and a cloud server 120 . The electronic device 110 and the cloud server 120 are connected through the network 130 . The electronic device 110 is a device purchased by the consumer, and the cloud server 120 is a server constructed by the manufacturer with high computing power and large storage capacity to provide recovery files for the consumer to download.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 2 , the electronic device 110 includes a processor 210 , a firmware storage unit 220 , a communication component 230 and a storage device 240 . The processor 210 is coupled to the firmware storage unit 220 , the communication component 230 and the storage device 240 .

The processor 210 is, for example, a central processing unit (Central Processing Unit, CPU), a programmable microprocessor (Microprocessor), an embedded control chip, a digital signal processor (Digital Signal Processor, DSP), a special application integrated circuit ( Application Specific Integrated Circuits, ASIC) or other similar devices.

The firmware storage unit 220 is, for example, a read only memory (Read Only Memory, ROM) or a flash memory (flash memory). The boot firmware 221 is stored in the firmware storage unit 220 . The boot firmware 221 is used to perform hardware initialization and test system hardware components during the boot process, and load a boot loader or operating system. The boot firmware 221 is, for example, a Basic Input/Output System (BIOS), an Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) BIOS or a Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) BIOS.

The communication element 230 may be a chip or a circuit using local area network (LAN) technology, wireless area network (Wireless LAN, WLAN) technology or mobile communication technology. An example of a local area network is Ethernet. The wireless local area network is, for example, Wi-Fi. Mobile communication technologies are, for example, Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), third-generation mobile communication technology (third-Generation, 3G), fourth-generation mobile communication technology (fourth-Generation, 4G), fifth-generation Mobile communication technology (fifth-Generation, 5G), etc.

The storage device 240 is, for example, any type of fixed or removable random access memory (Random Access Memory, RAM), read-only memory (Read-Only Memory, ROM), flash memory (Flash memory), hard Disc or other similar device or combination of these devices.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a reduction method according to an embodiment of the present invention. Please refer to FIG. 1 to FIG. 3 at the same time. In step S305 , the machine serial number of the electronic device 110 is sent to the cloud server 120 through the boot firmware 221 during the boot phase. For example, the connection function of the communication component 230 is enabled through the boot firmware 220 to send the connection request with the serial number of the machine to the cloud server 120 through the network 130 . The cloud server 120 uses the machine serial number to verify whether the electronic device 110 is a machine shipped by the supplier itself, and further uses the machine serial number to search for a suitable restore file.

After the connection is established, in step S310 , a boot program corresponding to the serial number of the machine is received from the cloud server 120 . The boot program is a boot image file, which contains startup files for a small operating system. The small operating system is a lightweight version of the operating system, which provides personal computer developers, workstations, servers, etc. to create a customized operating system environment, or to use it for troubleshooting. In one embodiment, the small operating system may adopt Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows Preinstallation Environment, WinPE), and the boot program is boot.wim, and its format is Windows Imaging Format (WIM).

After the electronic device 110 receives the startup program, in step S315 , the small operating system is executed through the startup program, that is, the recovery environment is entered. Next, in step S320 , the recovery file is downloaded from the cloud server 120 based on the serial number of the machine through the small operating system. Afterwards, in step S325, the restore file is installed through the mini-OS. The restoration operation cannot be performed during the booting stage, therefore, the small operating system is entered through the startup program to download the image file information and partition information from the cloud server 120 under the environment of the small operating system to complete the restoration operation. Another example will be given below for illustration.

FIG. 4 is a functional architecture diagram of providing a restore service through a cloud server according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 4 , when the electronic device 110 is powered on, the processor 210 reads the boot firmware 221 from the firmware storage unit 220 to execute the boot program. In the boot stage, the boot firmware 221 enters the EFI shell 41 and connects to the cloud server 120 through the connection module 42 . In one embodiment, the connection module 42 can be activated only when the recovery function needs to be executed.

When the electronic device 110 is connected to the cloud server 120 , in step S401 , the electronic device 110 sends the device serial number to the cloud server 120 . Next, in step S403, the cloud server 120 creates a startup program based on the boot sequence number. Specifically, the cloud server 120 retrieves a plurality of corresponding related information (such as driver program and other related information) based on the serial number of the machine, and then creates the startup program. The startup program is, for example, boot.wim. When the cloud server 120 transmits the boot program to the electronic device 110, it will also transmit the boot configuration data file (Boot Configuration Database, BCD) and the boot management firmware file (Boot Manager Firmware) corresponding to the machine serial number to the electronic device 110. The device 110 is used for the electronic device 110 to execute the small operating system 43 by using the boot configuration data file and the boot management firmware file together with the startup program.

After receiving the boot program, the boot configuration data file and the boot management firmware file, the electronic device 110 uses the preboot execution environment (Preboot eXecution Environment, PXE) 44 to reboot, so that the boot firmware 221 is based on the boot configuration data file and the boot management firmware file. The management firmware file is matched with the boot program to execute the small operating system 43 . In the environment where the small operating system 43 is executed, it is connected to the cloud server 120 . Since the startup program only includes the file information that needs to be restored, and does not include the actual restored file to be installed, after entering the small operating system 43, it is necessary to connect to the cloud server 120 to download the restored file. In one embodiment, after rebooting into the mini-operating system 43, the consumer may be asked whether to restore the system through a message displayed on the screen. Connect to the cloud server 120 to send the machine serial number again.

In step S407 , the machine serial number is sent to the cloud server 120 again through the OSS 43 . In an embodiment, the cloud server 120 further includes a plurality of item number databases, and these item number databases respectively provide corresponding recovery information for different item numbers. The cloud server 120 obtains the required restore information from the corresponding part number database according to the serial number of the machine, and then generates image information and partition information for sending to the electronic device 110 .

Afterwards, in step S409 , the image file information and the cut region information are downloaded from the cloud server 120 through the small operating system 43 . The OSS 43 formats the storage device 240 of the electronic device 110 into a plurality of partitioned magnetic sectors based on the partition information. Afterwards, in step S411 , download the corresponding recovery file (for example, a CD image file) from the cloud server 120 based on the image file information, and store the recovery file in a corresponding partition. Then, the small operating system 43 decompresses the restore file to obtain the deployment tool 45 and the system file.

After that, in step S413, the small operating system 43 enters the installation stage. During the installation phase, the system files are installed using the deployment tool 45 . After the installation stage is completed, the deployment tool 45 and unused files are removed through the boot firmware 221, and the system restoration is completed, and stops at the initial boot screen.

To sum up, this disclosure utilizes the cloud server to provide the recovery file, so that when the electronic device cannot normally enter the operating system, it can download the startup program from the cloud server to enter the recovery environment. Accordingly, when consumers have restoration needs, they do not need to wait for business hours to receive services. They only need to use the network environment to enjoy the intelligent services provided by the cloud server, and the service hours are not limited, thereby improving service satisfaction. For suppliers, through the automated restoration mechanism, unattended restoration services are completed, further saving labor costs.

100: restore system 110: Electronic device 120:Cloud server 130: Network 210: Processor 220: firmware storage unit 221:Boot firmware 230: communication components 240: storage device 41: EFI Shell 42:Connection module 43: Small Operating System 44: Pre-boot execution environment 45: Deployment tools S305～S325: the steps of the reduction method S401～S413: Steps

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a restoration system according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the invention. FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a reduction method according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a functional architecture diagram of providing a restore service through a cloud server according to an embodiment of the present invention.

S305~S325: the steps of the reduction method

Claims (10)

A recovery method comprising: In an electronic device, including: In a boot phase, sending a machine serial number of the electronic device to a cloud server through a boot firmware; receiving an activation program corresponding to the serial number of the machine from the cloud server; Executing a small operating system through the boot program; downloading a restore file from the cloud server based on the machine serial number through the small operating system; and Install the recovery file through the mini-OS. The restoration method as described in claim 1, wherein in the booting phase of the electronic device, after sending the machine serial number of the electronic device to the cloud server through the boot firmware, the cloud server includes: After receiving the machine serial number from the electronic device, establishing the activation program based on a plurality of related information obtained by the machine serial number; and sending the activation program to the electronic device. The restoration method described in claim 1, wherein the cloud server further includes: While sending the startup program to the electronic device, send a boot configuration data file corresponding to the serial number of the machine and a boot management firmware file to the electronic device, wherein the boot configuration data file and the boot management The firmware file cooperates with the boot program to execute the small operating system. The restore method as described in claim 1, wherein the step of downloading the restore file from the cloud server based on the machine serial number through the small operating system includes: In the small operating system, connect to the cloud server to obtain an image file information corresponding to the machine serial number and all area information from the cloud server; formatting a storage device of the electronic device into a plurality of partitioned volumes based on the partition information through the OSS; and Downloading the corresponding recovery file from the cloud server based on the image file information through the small operating system, and storing the recovery file in one of the partitioned magnetic zones. The restore method as described in claim 4, wherein the steps of installing the restore file through the small operating system include: Obtain a deployment tool and a system file from the restore file through the mini-OS; and The system file is installed by using the deployment tool through the small operating system. A recovery system comprising: a cloud server; and An electronic device, connected to the cloud server through a network, the electronic device is configured to: In a booting phase, sending a machine serial number of the electronic device to the cloud server through a booting firmware; receiving an activation program corresponding to the serial number of the machine from the cloud server; Executing a small operating system through the boot program; downloading a restore file from the cloud server based on the machine serial number through the small operating system; and Install the restore file through the mini-OS. The restoration system as described in claim 6, wherein the cloud server is configured to: After receiving the machine serial number from the electronic device, establishing the activation program based on a plurality of related information obtained by the machine serial number; and sending the activation program to the electronic device. The restoration system as described in claim 6, wherein the cloud server is configured to: While sending the startup program to the electronic device, send a boot configuration data file corresponding to the serial number of the machine and a boot management firmware file to the electronic device, wherein the boot configuration data file and the boot management The firmware file cooperates with the boot program to execute the small operating system. The restoration system as claimed in claim 6, wherein the electronic device is configured to: In the small operating system, connect to the cloud server to obtain an image file information corresponding to the machine serial number and all area information from the cloud server; formatting a storage device of the electronic device into a plurality of partitioned volumes based on the partition information through the OSS; and Downloading the corresponding recovery file from the cloud server based on the image file information through the small operating system, and storing the recovery file in one of the partitioned magnetic zones. The restoration system as claimed in claim 9, wherein the electronic device is configured to: Obtain a deployment tool and a system file from the restore file through the mini-OS; and The system file is installed by using the deployment tool through the small operating system.

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