JPH0574127A - Disk library apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make it possible for a disk library apparatus to operate in a normal state without being affected by dust, without depending on an expert maintenance man. CONSTITUTION:When the operating time of a disk library apparatus reaches the time set beforehand, a drive cleaner 6 is inserted automatically into optical disk drives 3a and 3b and thereby an optical system is cleaned. When the operating time of any of cartridges 1 reaches the time set beforehand, /besides, the cartridge 1 is fitted automatically in a cartridge cleaner 5 and thereby the surface of an optical disk incorporated is cleaned. Accordingly, a cleaning operation by a maintenance man is dispensed with.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention stores a plurality of cartridges each containing an optical disk, and selectively inserts one of them into an optical disk drive to write or read data to or from the optical disk. The present invention relates to a disk library device such as a mu changer, a jukebox, and an optical file device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a disk library device such as that described above, dust and dirt in the atmosphere that has entered the inside of the device has a great adverse effect on the device. That is, when the disk library device is operated for a long time, the dust adheres to the surface of the optical disk of the cartridge housed inside the device or the lens system of the optical disk drive, and the write / read data is written to or read from the optical disk. The read operation will not be performed normally. Therefore, it is necessary to regularly clean such dust.

[0003]

However, since the structure of the disk library device is complicated, a cleaning operation as described above cannot be easily performed by a general user. Therefore, a specialized worker (maintenance) who is familiar with the structure of the device is required. However, there is a problem that it takes time and effort to perform the work manually. The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to enable a disk library device to operate in a normal state without being affected by dust without depending on a specialized maintenance man. .

[0004]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a cartridge housing unit for housing a plurality of cartridges each containing an optical disk, and a method for writing data to the optical disk by inserting each cartridge. In a disk library device equipped with an optical disk drive for reading and a cartridge carrying unit for pulling out and carrying one of the cartridges from a cartridge housing unit and inserting it in the optical disk drive, the built-in optical disk A cartridge cleaner for cleaning the surface and a drive cleaner for cleaning an optical system inside the optical disk drive by inserting it into the optical disk drive are provided in the apparatus.

Further, a timer for measuring the operating time of the disk library device, and when the operating time measured by the timer reaches a preset time, a drive cleaner is inserted into the optical disk drive to clean the optical system. It is advisable to provide means for automatically performing this. In addition, a timer that measures the operating time that was inserted into the optical disk drive of each cartridge, and when the operating time of one of the cartridges reaches a preset time, that cartridge is inserted into the cartridge cleaner to automatically clean the optical disk. And a means for performing the same.

[0006]

In the disk library device according to the present invention, the cartridge is inserted into the cartridge cleaner to clean the surface of the built-in optical disk, and the drive cleaner is inserted into the optical disk drive to clean the optical system inside the optical disk drive. It is possible to remove dust adhering to the surface of the optical disc or the lens system of the optical disc drive without using maintenance man.

Further, when the operating time of the disk drive device measured by a timer reaches a preset time, a drive cleaner is inserted into the optical disk drive to clean the lens system of the optical disk drive, and further by a timer. By measuring the operating time of each cartridge that has been inserted into the optical disk drive and inserting the cartridge whose operating time has reached the preset time into the cartridge cleaner to clean the optical disk However, it is possible to regularly remove dust adhering to the surface of the optical disc or the lens system of the optical disc drive.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT An embodiment of the present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a disk library device according to the present invention. This disc library device has N discs each containing an optical disc.
A cartridge storage unit 2 for storing individual cartridges 1 (a to n) is provided, and various types of data are readablely recorded on this optical disc.

Further, one of the cartridges 1 is inserted from the cartridge storage unit 2 for writing or reading data to or from the optical disk, and one of the cartridges 1 is pulled out from the cartridge storage unit 2 and conveyed. Optical disk drive 3a, 3
The cartridge transport unit 4 is provided for inserting the cartridge 1 in b and inverting the cartridge 1.

Further, the cartridge cleaner 5 for cleaning the surface of the built-in optical disk by inserting the cartridge 1 has the same shape as the cartridge 1, and by inserting the cartridge cleaner 5 into the optical disk drives 3a, 3b, the inside of the cartridge cleaner 5a. A drive cleaner 6 for cleaning an optical (lens) system is also provided. And CP
A disk library device controller (hereinafter, simply referred to as "U, ROM, RAM, etc.") having a built-in timer for measuring the operating time of the disk library device and the operating time of the optical disk drives 3a and 3b of each cartridge. Referred to as "controller")
Equipped with 7.

The controller 7 controls the disk library device, and when the operating time of the disk library device reaches a preset time, the drive cleaner 6 is inserted into the optical disk drives 3a and 3b to clean the lens system. It controls the processing to be performed and the processing to insert the cartridge 1 into the cartridge cleaner 5 and clean the optical disc when the operating time of any one of the cartridges 1 reaches a preset time. It also connects to the host computer via the host interface 8 and sends the data read from the optical disk of each cartridge 1 to the host computer.

Next, the cleaning process of the lens system of the optical disc drive and the optical disc built in each cartridge will be described with reference to the flow chart shown in FIG. When the disk library device is powered on and powered on, the nonvolatile memory (R
AM), the operating time of the disk library device and the operating time of each cartridge 1 are stored in a counter CL,
C1 to Cn are respectively set as initial values.

After that, when data reading processing from the optical disk of each cartridge 1 is performed as a normal operation, the operating time of the disk library device is set to the initial value of the counter CL, and the counters C1 to Cn are set.
The optical disk drives 3a and 3b of each cartridge 1
The operating time inserted in each is sequentially incremented (added). That is, this counter CL, C1
~ Cn performs the function of the timer.

Next, when the time recorded in the counter CL exceeds the threshold value (set time) previously stored in the ROM, the drive cleaner 6 is moved to the optical disk drive 3.
The lenses are sequentially inserted into a and 3b to clean their lens systems, and CL is reset. When the time recorded in any of the counters C1 to Cn exceeds the threshold value (set time), the cartridge 1 is inserted into the cartridge cleaner 5 to clean the optical disk, and C1 to Cn are reset. To do. In other words, this threshold value is the time to reach the degree of contamination at which the optical disk drives 3a and 3b cannot normally perform the write / read operation, and the value may be varied depending on the usage environment of the disk library device.

Then, when the operating time reaches a preset time during the operation of the disk library device, the lens system of the optical disk drive is cleaned, and among the cartridges whose operating time reaches the preset time, When the optical disk is cleaned and the disk library device is powered off, the time recorded in the counters CL, C1 to Cn at that time is written in the non-volatile memory (RAM), and the process is ended.

In this way, the cartridge cleaner 5 and the drive cleaner 6 built in the disk library device clean the optical system of each cartridge 1 and the optical system of the optical disk drives 3a and 3b, respectively, so that they are carried out of the apparatus. There is no need to remove it to remove dust, and cleaning is easy.

When the operating time of the disk library device and the operating time of each cartridge reach preset times, the lens system of the optical disk drives 3a and 3b and the optical disk of each cartridge 1 are automatically cleaned. It is possible to prevent data loss due to dust and operate it in a normal state for a long time.

[0018]

As described above, according to the disk library device of the present invention, the disk library device can be operated in a normal state without being affected by dust without depending on a specialized maintenance man.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a disk library device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a cleaning process in the disk library device shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 cartridge 2 cartridge storage unit 3a, 3b optical disk drive 4 cartridge transport unit 5 cartridge cleaner 6 drive cleaner 7 disk library device controller 8 host interface

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A cartridge housing unit for housing a plurality of cartridges each containing an optical disk, an optical disk drive for inserting or loading the respective cartridges to write or read data to or from the optical disk, and either of the cartridge housing units. In a disk library device including a cartridge transport unit for pulling out and transporting the cartridge of FIG. 1 and inserting the cartridge into the optical disc drive, a cartridge cleaner for cleaning the surface of an optical disc contained therein by inserting the cartridge, and the optical disc drive. A disk library device, wherein a drive cleaner for cleaning an optical system inside the optical disk drive by being inserted into the device is provided in the device. 2. The disk library device according to claim 1, wherein the timer for measuring the operating time of the disk library device, and the drive cleaner when the operating time measured by the timer reaches a preset time And a means for automatically cleaning the optical system by inserting the optical disk into the optical disk drive. 3. The disk library device according to claim 1, wherein a timer for measuring an operating time of each of the cartridges inserted into the optical disk drive, and an operating time of one of the cartridges is set in advance. And a means for automatically cleaning an optical disk by inserting the cartridge into the cartridge cleaner when the disk library apparatus reaches the disk.