Disk Drive I/O Commands and Write Blocking.

A write blocker allows read-only access to digital data on a secondary storage device by placing a hardware or software filter between the host computer and the storage device. The filter monitors I/O commands sent from the application on the host computer, only allowing commands to the device that make no changes to its data. This paper examines the I/O commands used to access secondary storage devices and discusses their implications for BIOS-based and hardware-based write blockers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]