Method and apparatus for remote data acquisition from a block data storage
device having a data storage medium, a host interface port, a serial
communication (COM) port and a programmable controller with associated
platform firmware and associated diagnostic firmware. A client computer
and a server computer are connected to a computer network (such as the
Internet), and the data storage device is connected to the server computer
via the host interface port. A data acquisition device such as a disk
drive analyzer having digital oscilloscope capabilities is connected to
the server computer and the data storage device. Requests from the client
computer are transmitted via the network to result in a first command to
the data storage device to execute the platform firmware and a second
command to capture a waveform signal from the data storage device. The
waveform signal is transmitted real time for display by the client
computer.
