JPH01287801A - magnetic storage device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a magnetic storage device, and improves the reliability of the entire device while reducing man-hours in manufacturing and time occupied by a checker. This is intended to be used to reduce maintenance time in the event of a breakdown.

(Conventional technology) When a fixed disk is built into a computer body or is manufactured into an independent device as a terminal, a single checker is used on the production line to perform physical formatting of the fixed disk, registration of bad sectors, alternative processing, etc. I went and occupied it.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, this method requires one person to operate one checker, the checker is occupied for a long time, and the amount that can be checked in one day is limited.

Furthermore, many of the failures that occur during use by users are due to partial damage to the magnetic media (users did not have the means to recover from this. Therefore, these products are sold by manufacturers). The company decided to repair it, and it was closed to users who wanted to use it right away.

In view of the problems of the above-mentioned magnetic storage device, the present invention
Where the work process can be automated, equipping the equipment with that function simplifies the process and prevents mistakes in the work process.
The purpose of this is to improve the reliability of the entire device and the effectiveness of mass production by allowing the user to perform maintenance to some extent.

[Means to solve the problem]

The magnetic storage device of the present invention is composed of a fixed disk and a control board for controlling the fixed disk, and in the magnetic storage device connected to a host device, physical initialization of the magnetic storage device, storage disk surface inspection,
means for automatically performing alternative processing for defective tracks by a switch provided in the magnetic storage device or on the control board, regardless of a command from the host;
It is characterized by having a means for visually recognizing the sequence being processed, and furthermore, in order to prevent erroneous operation, the switch does not operate unless at least two or more operations are performed.

〔Example〕

Figure 1 shows a magnetic storage device (11) equipped with the present invention, which integrates a hard disk controller board and uses SC3I/SAS as an interface with a host computer.
I (SC3I is a Small Computer
System Interface, S A S I
Shugart As5ociates System
mInterface).

Figure 2 shows a magnetic storage device (21 and 22) that includes a fixed disk and a controller board that controls the fixed disk.
), and the function is the same as that in FIG. This is also an SC3I/S interface with the host computer.
ASI is used. Both devices are connected to the host computer via cables or card edge connectors.

Also, the interface with the host is 5C8I/SA
SI, the host computer and the magnetic storage device are connected to the host CPU's path lines (address, data bus,
A configuration in which the devices are connected via a control bus, etc.) does not depart from the scope of the claims of the present invention.

10.20 is an SC3I/SAS I connector, and 13 is an LED that blinks when the fixed disk is in operation.

FIG. 3 shows a general configuration of a hard disk controller board. 34 is the main IC of the controller board, which controls the fixed disk by commands from the CPU. 36 is a 5C8I protocol controller, which is mainly responsible for exchanging commands between the host computer and the hard disk controller and controlling the bus. Instead of using 36 chips, there is also a way to implement the SAS I protocol through 32 CPU I10 ports.

A CPU (32) controls these devices, and a control program is stored in a ROM (33). RAM (31) is used during CPU execution. The work area is used as a temporary storage location for data to be read from and written to the fixed disk (38).

37 is placed on the 10 bus of the CPU, and controls turning on and off of LEDs and switch inputs.

Each LED (13) usually on the magnetic storage device or extended by a cable from the magnetic storage device or control board.
, (23), the magnetic storage device blinks while the SC3I/SAS I command is being executed, but in the present invention, the flashing is performed asynchronously with the command execution, and for example, a separate display is performed to confirm the operation. of LEDs (24) are used. Further, in order to identify the identification operation by sharing the LED as shown in 25, it is also possible to change the lighting color using a two-color LED.

The switch in this embodiment is a bushing switch, and the first
This corresponds to 12 in the figure and 22 in FIG. All functions of the present invention are performed by pressing this switch. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an outline of the operation of the fixed disk after the switch is pressed.

A magnetic storage device is composed of a plurality of rotating disks (magnetic disks). Because this magnetic disk has a very high storage density, it is difficult to manufacture a perfect disk at the time of manufacture at the current technological level, so it is normal for there to be at least several defective parts (BAD-3POT) per side. be. This area is carefully checked by the fixed disk manufacturer and a sticker labeled "defect map" is placed to prevent future use of this area.

This BAD-3TOP is registered as a defective track in the magnetic disk by the controller of the fixed disk, so that no third party can write or write to it.

Information sent to the magnetic storage device is divided into two: SC3I/SAS I commands via the host and cable, and port input from the switch.If it is a command, the LED will blink like a normal magnetic storage device. and execute the command. A detailed explanation of this operation is omitted here because it is not directly related to the present invention.

The operation of the present invention when there is a switch input will be explained based on FIGS. 5, 6, and 7.

Figure 5 shows the overall process flow with the switch pressed and LE
This is explained together with the light emission sequence D. If the button switch is pressed for more than 3 seconds, the LED will turn on.
flashes red. Next, when the switch is turned off, L
If the ED flashes in orange and the switch is turned on again within 3 seconds, the switch input (il t = sequence) has been successfully completed (41). Fig. 2-
When a switch is provided in the housing like No. 22, there is a risk that all data in the device will be lost if this switch is accidentally operated. Therefore, as described above, based on the second claim, the sequence requires at least two switch operations so that the switch does not operate unless the user consciously operates the switch. If the procedure deviates from the prescribed procedure, the system enters a state of waiting for a 5C3I/SAS I command and switch input.

Next, before actually accessing the magnetic storage device, an entry process (42) is entered in which the LED flashes alternately in red and orange for about 15 seconds. It is responsible for informing the. Next, the surface of the magnetic storage device is inspected and defective tracks are replaced while the LED flashes in red (43).
Finally, as an end process, the LED is alternately flashed in red, orange, and green 10 times to notify the user that the process in (43) has ended normally (44). In addition,
The details of (43) surface inspection of magnetic storage devices and replacement processing of defective tracks will be described later, but if an error that makes it impossible to continue processing occurs during this processing, an LED will be lit and the user will be given instructions on how to proceed. It is designed to notify you if an error has occurred.

As described above, the present invention has the advantage that the sequence being processed can be visually recognized using the LED, and that the switch and the LED can be used interactively.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing when inspecting the surface of a storage disk of a magnetic storage device.

First, initial values of variables such as track addresses required for surface inspection are set (St), the head of the magnetic storage device is moved to track address 0 (S2), and then each track is inspected (S3). If it is a defective track, proceed to the next track processing without doing anything (310), and if the track has already been subjected to substitution processing (replacement source track) (S5), the track is registered as a defective track (S9). ), for other tracks, that is, normal tracks or tracks registered as an alternative destination, a write/read check is performed for the entire track (S6), and for a track in which an error has occurred (S7), a write/read check is performed for the other track, that is, a normal track or a track registered as an alternative destination. Similarly to the track, the track is registered as a defective track (S9), and the track that has completed normally is formatted as a normal track. The above process is repeated for all tracks (SIO).

The purpose of the surface inspection is to discover unstable tracks such as reading/writing due to scratches on the surface of the storage disk that occur while the device is in operation. Trucks that are determined to be defective in this inspection become defective trucks at this point, so
Reading/writing will become impossible in the future.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the flow of alternative processing for defective tracks discovered by surface inspection. First, variables are initialized as in the surface inspection (311), and the head of the magnetic storage device is moved to track address O. Next, each track is inspected (S13), and if it is a defective track (S14), a process (alternative formatting process) is performed to logically allocate the track to an alternative area (31
5). The process proceeds to inspecting the next track without doing anything except for the defective track. The above process is repeated for all tracks included in the area normally used by the user (S
16).

If a defective track is assigned to a normal track in the alternate area as shown in the following, when the defective track is accessed, the controller will automatically access the alternate destination normal track, and the apparent defective track will be replaced. It means that it has disappeared. The more replacement areas there are, the more defective tracks that will increase in the future can be adequately covered, and by performing this replacement processing, there will be virtually no defective tracks in this magnetic storage device.

〔Effect of the invention〕

By equipping a magnetic storage device with this switch, in the future it will be possible to perform the above-mentioned processing that was previously performed via the host without using the host. This means that it is possible to consciously reduce the number of required hosts and reduce the number of human steps required in manufacturing. In addition, a high mass production effect can be expected from this. In addition, if the device breaks down during operation, there is a very high probability that maintenance will be performed on the device, except for cases where the device is physically destroyed or electrically malfunctions, leading to a reduction in repair time. Processing via the host only involves physically formatting the device and then registering the defective track.

Furthermore, magnetic disk surface inspection and alternative processing have traditionally been performed by software via the host. For this reason, the difficulty in using the software became a bottleneck for some users, and the users were forced into inconvenience. By providing a switch, it becomes possible to perform the processing with a simple operation.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1 and 2 are schematic diagrams showing one embodiment of the present invention, FIGS. 3 and 4 are block diagrams showing the present invention, FIG. 5 is a timing diagram, and FIGS. FIG. 7 shows a flowchart diagram, respectively. 11.21.26 is a magnetic storage device 12.22 is a switch 13.23, 24.25 is a light emitting diode or more Applicant Seiko Epson Corporation Representative Patent Attorney Kizobe Suzuki and 1 other person Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 6 figure

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) Physical initialization of the magnetic storage device, surface inspection of the storage disk, defect Means for automatically performing track alternative processing by a switch means provided in the magnetic storage device or on the control board, regardless of a command from the host, and means for visually recognizing the sequence during the processing. A magnetic storage device characterized by having: (2) The magnetic storage device according to claim 1, wherein the switch means does not operate unless operated at least twice to prevent erroneous operations.