JPH0528660A - Information storage device with self-diagnostic function - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To perform a fast self-diagnosis and to improve the operability and the reliability of the self-diagnosis by experimentally writing an information after an initialization processing, reading the information and by deciding each operation as a normal one or not. CONSTITUTION:First, the hardware and the software of a control section 2 of the information storage device are initialized. Having completed the initialization, a CPU 21, which is provided in the control section 2, experimentally writes an information to an information storage medium 3 using the recording region of the information storage medium 3 where no recording and reproducing information is stored, reads the information and discriminates the writing and the reading operations are normal or not. Thus, in the conventional system, it is uncertain that the recording and reproducing information are normally written and read after a completion of an initialization, however, this device resolves the problem, performs a fast self-diagnosis and improves the operability and the reliability.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information storage device such as an optical disk, a magneto-optical disk, a magnetic disk or the like, and more particularly to writing information to an information storage medium at the time of initialization processing of its hardware and software. The present invention relates to an information storage device having a self-diagnosis function that improves operability and reliability of self-diagnosis by rapidly determining whether or not a read operation can be normally performed.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in information storage devices such as optical disks and magneto-optical disks, hardware initialization and software initialization have been performed as initialization processing. In this case, the initialization process is judged, but the information writing and reading operations are not judged. Therefore, it is unclear whether the initialization process is normal and the information writing and reading operations can be normally executed. is there.

Therefore, in the conventional information storage device, even after the initialization of the hardware and software is completed, the management information is stored in the information storage medium and the writing and reading operations of the management information are normally performed. Until it is determined whether or not it has been performed (see the flow in FIG. 4 described later), it is not clear whether or not the information for recording and reproduction can be normally written and read.

[0004]

According to the present invention, such inconvenience in the initialization processing of the conventional information storage device,
That is, during the initialization processing of hardware and software, it is possible to solve the inconvenience that it is not possible to quickly determine whether or not the information writing / reading operation to the information storage medium can be normally performed, and the initialization processing is performed to the information storage medium. It is an object of the present invention to provide an information storage device that enables a quick self-diagnosis by determining whether the information writing and reading operations are correct.

[0005]

According to the present invention, firstly,
A function of performing a write operation and a read operation on the information storage medium, the information storage medium including a storage area for storing information for recording and reproduction and a storage area for not storing information for recording and reproduction; In an information storage device having an initialization function that enables the function of, after performing a write operation of predetermined information in a storage area of the information storage medium that does not store information for recording and reproduction,
The self-diagnosis of the initialization process is performed by reading the written sector and determining the correctness.

Secondly, in the first information storage device, the self-diagnosis of the initialization process is performed at a plurality of storage areas of the information storage medium that do not store information for recording and reproduction, or
When a plurality of independent storage areas that do not store information for recording and reproduction are provided, the configuration is based on the correctness / wrongness judgment of one or a plurality of independent areas.

Thirdly, in the above second information storage device, it is judged whether the number of times of the normal judgment result is a preset number or more out of the total judgment times as a result of the judgment of the correctness, and the normality is judged. When the result of the judgment is less than the preset number of times, the initialization processing is continued.

[0008]

According to the present invention, in the initialization process of the information storage device, immediately after the initialization of the hardware and software is completed, the storage area on the information storage medium in which the information for recording and reproduction is not stored is used, Information is written to and read from the information storage medium on a trial basis, and it is determined whether the reading / writing operation can be performed normally (the invention of claim 1).

Further, in order to improve the accuracy of the judgment result, when the storage area in which the information for recording / reproducing is not stored is one area, a plurality of parts of the area is used to perform the recording / reproducing of a plurality of independent parts. When a storage area that does not store information for use is provided, a self-diagnosis is performed by determining whether it is correct or incorrect at one location or a plurality of locations in each of a plurality of independent areas (the invention of claim 2).

Further, in order to speed up initialization processing including normal read / write operations, when the number of write / read operations determined to be normal as a result of self-diagnosis is less than a preset number of times. Continues the initialization process (the invention of claim 3).

[0011]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, an information storage device having a self-diagnosis function of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing an embodiment of the main configuration of the information storage device of the present invention.
In the figure, 1 is a host device, 2 is a control unit of the information storage device, 21 is its CPU, 22 is an error correction unit, 23 is a buffer management unit, 24 is a buffer memory, 25 is a drive control unit, 3 is an information storage medium. 3a indicates the management information storage area.

The information storage device shown in FIG. 1 is basically the same as the information storage device shown in FIG. 1 except that the CPU 21 provided in the control unit 2 performs self-diagnosis at the time of initialization according to the flow of FIG. The configuration is the same as the conventional one. The functions of the respective units of the control unit 2 of the information storage device shown in FIG. 1 are as follows.

The CPU 21 is a central processing unit having a function of controlling the entire system of the information storage device. The error correction unit 22 has a function of performing correction processing when an error occurs as a result of checking the correctness during the initialization processing of the hardware.

The buffer management unit 23 includes a buffer memory 2
The information exchange operation between the higher-level device 1 and the information storage medium 3 is controlled via the control unit 4. The buffer memory 24 is
The memory is a memory for temporarily storing information exchanged between the host device 1 and the information storage medium 3. The drive control unit 25 has a function of controlling a read / write operation of information with respect to the information storage medium 3.

Next, the layout of the information storage medium 3 will be described. FIG. 2 is a diagram conceptually showing the layout of tracks on the information storage medium. In the figure, a is an area for storing information for recording and reproduction, b is an area for not storing information for recording and reproduction, and x and y are addresses on a sector.

As shown in FIG. 2, the sector of the information storage medium 3 is provided with an area a for storing information for recording / reproduction, and "0 to x" in the horizontal direction and "0" in the vertical direction. 0 to
Information for recording and reproduction is recorded in “y”. Further, in the case of FIG. 2, areas b in which information for recording and reproduction is not stored are provided above and below the area.

According to the present invention, the area b which does not store the recording / reproducing information is used to perform the initialization process, that is,
After the initialization processing of the hardware and software, it is determined whether or not the information write / read operation can be normally performed. To facilitate understanding,
Regarding the information storage device shown in FIG. 1, the operation common to the conventional one will be described with reference to the flowchart.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing the main processing flow at the time of initialization in the information storage device. In the figure, # 1 to # 11 indicate steps.

In step # 1, the hardware of the control unit 2 is initialized. By this processing, the error correction unit 22, the buffer management unit 23, the buffer memory 24,
Each hardware of the drive control unit 25 is initialized.

At the next step # 2, the software of the control unit 2 is initialized. By this processing, software for controlling the information storage device by the CPU 21 is initialized.

In step # 3, the management information stored in the management information storage area 3a on the information storage medium 3 is read. In the next step # 4, it is checked whether the reading was correct. When it is correctly read, the process proceeds to step # 5, the fact that it is normal is output, and the flow of FIG. 4 ends.

If it cannot be read correctly, step # 6
Then, the procedure goes to step S4 to check whether the management information is written in the management information storage area 3a. When the management information is written, the process proceeds to step # 7, the fact that there is an abnormality is output, and the flow of FIG. 4 ends. In this case, the notification of the abnormality is given by, for example, outputting a predetermined error code to the host device 1.

If the management information is not yet written, the process proceeds to step # 8. In step # 8, the initial data of the management information is written in the management information storage area 3a on the information storage medium 3. In the next step # 9, it is checked whether the management information written in the management information storage area 3a is correct.

If it is not correct, the process proceeds to step # 10, an error message is output, and the flow of FIG. 4 is terminated. If the result of checking in step # 9 is correct, the process proceeds to step # 11 to output that it is normal,
The flow of FIG. 4 is terminated.

By the above steps # 1 to # 11, the initialization processing in the conventional information storage device is executed. However, in the conventional initialization processing, it was not known whether the operation was normal until an abnormality was detected in step # 7 or step # 10.

In the information storage device of the present invention, in the flow of FIG. 4, immediately after the hardware and software of the control unit 2 are initialized in step # 1 and step # 2, immediately
A self-diagnosis is performed as to whether or not the initialization process is normally performed, so that an abnormality of the device can be detected at an early stage.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing a main processing flow in self-diagnosis as to whether or not information write / read operations can be normally performed in the information storage device of the present invention. In the figure, # 21 to # 34 indicate steps. In step # 21, B = 0, C = X, and C '= Y are set in order to initialize the counters.

Here, B is the number of sectors in which information has been written and read correctly on a trial basis, C is the first counter value,
C'is the second counter value. The first counter value C is set to the total number X of sectors to which information is to be written on a trial basis, and the second counter value C ′ is the number of areas to be 1
When there are a plurality of areas, and when checking a plurality of areas, the total number Y is set.

In the next step # 22, the information is experimentally written in the area b where the information for recording and reproduction is not stored in the sector on the information storage medium shown in FIG. In step # 23, it is checked whether or not the writing operation has been completed normally. If successful, step #
In step 24, the information of the sector written on a trial basis is read out.

At step # 25, it is checked whether the data has been written correctly. In this check, the contents of data are also checked. If written correctly, B = B + 1 is set in step # 26, and the process proceeds to the next step # 27.

As a result of checking in step # 23,
When the writing operation is not normal, step # 25
As a result of checking in step 3, even if the contents of the data are not correctly written, the process proceeds to step # 27. In step # 27, the sector to be written is changed.

Proceed to step # 28 to set C = X-1 and
In the next step # 29, it is determined whether C = 0. If C = 0 is not satisfied, the previous step # 22 is performed again.
Then, the same processing is repeated thereafter.

When it is determined in this step # 29 that C = 0, the process proceeds to the next step # 30, and a plurality of pieces of recording / reproducing information are not stored in the sector on the information storage medium. Check whether region b exists. If there are a plurality of areas b in which information for recording and reproduction is not stored (for example, in the case of FIG. 2), step #
In step 31, C = C 'is set, the process returns to the previous step # 22, and the same processing is repeated.

If it is determined in step # 30 that there is not a plurality of areas b in which the information for recording and reproduction is not stored, the process proceeds to the next step # 32. In step # 32, it is checked whether or not B> Z (preset threshold value of a correctly read sector).

If B> Z, the process proceeds to step # 33, the fact that it is normal is output, and the flow of FIG. 3 is terminated. If B> Z is not satisfied, the process proceeds to step # 34, an abnormality is output, and the flow of FIG. 3 is similarly ended.

By the above processing of steps # 21 to # 34, the self-diagnosis at the time of initialization by the information storage device having the self-diagnosis function of the present invention is executed. As described above in detail, in the information storage device having the self-diagnosis function of the present invention, the storage area of the information storage medium that does not store the information for recording / reproduction is used to immediately and experimentally perform initialization. Information writing and reading operations are performed, and self-diagnosis is performed as to whether the information is correct or not.

In this self-diagnosis, when there is only one storage area that does not store independent recording / reproducing information, a plurality of areas are used, and when there are multiple independent areas, This is done using one or more areas. Further, when the number of times determined to be normal is less than or equal to the predetermined number of times, the initialization process is continuously continued to realize a quick self-diagnosis as to whether the writing or reading operation of information is correct.

[0039]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the information writing / reading operation to / from the information storage medium is performed on a trial basis, and it is determined whether the reading / writing operation can be normally performed. With this, normal information writing and reading operations are possible, and operability and reliability are improved.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, when the number of storage areas in which the information for recording and reproduction is not stored is one, a plurality of areas of the area are used for recording and reproduction of a plurality of independent areas. When a storage area that does not store information is provided, the self-diagnosis is performed by making a correct / wrong judgment at one or a plurality of positions in each of a plurality of independent areas, so that the accuracy of the judgment result can be improved.

Further, according to the invention of claim 3, when the number of write and read operations determined to be normal as a result of the self-diagnosis is less than the preset number, the initialization process is continued. There are many excellent effects such that the initialization process including the normal read / write operation is quickly executed.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing an embodiment of the main configuration of an information storage device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram conceptually showing a layout of tracks on an information storage medium.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a main processing flow during self-diagnosis as to whether or not information write / read operations can be normally performed in the information storage device of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a flow of main processing at initialization in the information storage device.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Upper device 2 Control unit of information storage device 21 CPU 22 Error correction section 23 Buffer Management Unit 24 buffer memory 25 Drive controller 3 Information storage medium

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An information storage medium comprising a storage area for storing information for recording and reproduction and a storage area for not storing information for recording and reproduction, and performs a writing operation and a reading operation on the information storage medium. In an information storage device having a function and an initialization function that enables the function of the operation, an operation of writing predetermined information into a storage area of the information storage medium that does not store information for recording and reproduction during initialization processing. After performing, the information storage device is characterized in that the written sector is read out and the correctness of the sector is determined to perform self-diagnosis of the initialization process. 2. The information storage device according to claim 1, wherein the self-diagnosis of the initialization processing is performed at a plurality of storage areas of the information storage medium in which information for recording / reproduction is not stored or at a plurality of independent recording / reproduction locations. When there is provided a storage area that does not store the information, the information storage device is characterized by judging whether one or a plurality of independent areas are correct. 3. The information storage device according to claim 2, wherein whether or not the number of normal determination results out of the total number of determinations as a result of correctness determination is equal to or greater than a preset number of times is determined. An information storage device, wherein the initialization process is continued when the result is equal to or less than a preset number of times.