JP2000156024A - Hard disk provided with self-diagnostic device of life limit - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To attain the protection of data stored in a hard disk without breaking down the data by definitely informing the life limit of the hard disk. SOLUTION: When the power is supplied from a power source circuit 2, a signal is transmitted to a cumulative timer comparing circuit 4 simultaneously with the start of the disk 3. By the cumulative timer comparing circuit 4, the life time of the disk 3 is previously stored, and a signal is transmitted to an external display circuit 5 when the using time exceeds this life time. The life is informed by the external display circuit 5 through a display element 6. The life of the disk 3 is thereby acquainted.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a hard disk, and more particularly, to a hard disk drive in which the operating time of the hard disk itself is stored, and when the end of the life of the disk has been reached, this is notified to a display device outside the main body of the disk, and the data is read out. The present invention relates to a hard disk with a self-diagnosis device that can prevent damage such as breakage before the end of its life.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a hard disk, the life of the disk has suddenly appeared, and important data has been damaged or destroyed. Currently, the life of the disk has been extended,
There is still a lifetime.

[0003] Predicting hard disk failure and life,
There is no problem if you always have backups, but backup at the individual level requires considerable cost and time. You need a hard disk that can be used safely at the individual level. This can be achieved by eliminating data destruction over the life of the disk.

[0004] This is because there is no means for knowing the life of the hard disk.

[0005]

As described above, since no means for detecting the life of the hard disk has been provided in the past, the life of the hard disk suddenly appears, and important data stored in the hard disk is lost. Damage and destruction occurred.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an accurate notification of the life of a hard disk and to protect data stored on the hard disk without destruction. Another object of the present invention is to provide a new hard disk with a self-diagnosis device that has a self-diagnosis device for a lifetime.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, a hard disk with a life time self-diagnosis device according to the present invention comprises: a hard disk; An accumulative timer comparison circuit for generating an output signal to the outside when the life time of the accumulative timer is exceeded, and an external display circuit for supplying the output signal of the accumulative timer comparison circuit and externally informing the life of the hard disk through a display element. And a life time diagnosis device provided with:

The cumulative timer comparison circuit in the life time diagnosis device stores an accumulation timer for accumulating the number of uses of the hard disk and outputting an accumulated value, and a disk life value of the hard disk to be used. A disk life storage element, and comparing the disk life value output from the disk life storage element with the cumulative value of the number of times of use output from the accumulation timer, the cumulative value of the number of times of use is calculated as the disk life value. And a comparator for generating an output signal when the output signal becomes larger than the threshold value.

The present operating time of the hard disk output from the life time diagnosis device, the accumulated operating time up to now, the reliability of the hard disk predicted from the life time of the disk life storage element, A life register for storing the failure rate of the hard disk and the like is provided.

The present operating time of the hard disk stored in the life register, the cumulative operating time so far,
Data fetch processing means for fetching data such as the reliability of the hard disk predicted from the life time of the disk life storage element and the failure rate of the hard disk expected in the future, and input data for analyzing the fetched data It is characterized by including analysis processing means and display display means for displaying the analyzed data.

[0011]

In the present invention, when power is supplied from the power supply circuit 2 in FIG. 1, a signal is sent to the cumulative timer comparison circuit 4 of the life time diagnosis device 1 at the same time when the disk 3 is started. The cumulative timer comparison circuit 4 stores the life time of the disk 3 in advance, and sends a signal to the external display circuit 5 of the life time diagnosis device 1 when the life time exceeds the life time. External display circuit 5
Indicates the life through the display element 6. This allows
The life of the disk 3 can be known.

[0012]

Next, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

[First Embodiment] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a first embodiment of the present invention.

[Configuration of First Embodiment] Referring to FIG. 1, a first embodiment of a hard disk according to the present invention comprises a life time diagnosis device 1, a power supply circuit 2, a disk 3
And

The life time diagnosis device 1 includes an accumulative timer comparison circuit 4 for receiving a power supply signal from the power supply circuit 2, and an external display circuit 5 for receiving the comparison output of the accumulative timer comparison circuit 4 and generating an external display signal. And

The power supply circuit 2 supplies power to the disk 3 at the same time as sending a signal to the accumulation timer comparison circuit 4. The external display circuit 5 receives the signal of the cumulative timer comparison circuit 4 and notifies the outside of the life through the display element 6.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the cumulative timer comparing circuit 4 in the first embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 2, the cumulative timer comparing circuit 4
Is a cumulative timer 11 for accumulating the number of times of use of the disk 3 (the number of times of power-on or operating time) and outputting a cumulative value, and a disk life storage element 12 for storing a disk life value of the disk 3 to be used. Is compared with the output of the disk life storage element 12 when the output of the accumulation timer 11 is greater than the output of the disk life storage element 12. And a comparator 13 for generating an output.

In FIG. 2, first, the accumulation timer 11 receives a signal from the power supply circuit 2 and sends a signal to the comparator 13. Further, the comparator 13 receives a predetermined signal from the disk life storage element 12.

The comparator 13 compares the signal from the accumulation timer 11 with the signal from the disk life storage element 12. When the result of the comparison indicates that the signal from the accumulation timer 11 becomes larger than the signal from the disk life storage element 12, the external display is performed. A signal is sent to the circuit 5.

[Operation of First Embodiment] Next, the operation of the circuit of FIG. 1 will be described with reference to the drawings.

Normally, when the power of the computer is inputted, the power supply circuit 2 of the hard disk 7 is also supplied with the power in conjunction therewith. The disk 3 is operated by the power supply circuit 2, and the hard disk 7 can be accessed.

The power supply circuit 2 sends a signal to the life time diagnosis device 1 at the same time when power is supplied to the disk 3. The life time diagnosis device 1 reads the power-on signal sent to the cumulative timer comparison circuit 4 and starts measuring the operating time of the disk 3.

The cumulative timer comparing circuit 4 measures the operating time of the disk 3 with the cumulative timer 11 as shown in FIG. The disk life storage element 12 is a storage element that records the average life operation time of the disk 3.

The comparator 13 constantly compares the value of the cumulative timer 11 with the value of the average lifetime operating time of the disk lifetime storage element 12. When the time of the accumulation timer 11 becomes longer than the time stored in the disk life storage element 12, the comparator 13 outputs a signal to the external display circuit 5.

The external display circuit 5 includes a cumulative timer comparing circuit 4
To inform the operator of the arrival of the average lifetime operating time of the disk 3 to the outside of the hard disk 7 by a display element 6 (eg, LED) to the operator.

[Embodiment 2] Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described.
An embodiment will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a second embodiment according to the present invention.

[Configuration of Second Embodiment] Referring to FIG. 3, a second embodiment according to the present invention has a configuration in which a lifetime register 21 is connected to a lifetime timing diagnosis apparatus 1.

From the life time diagnosis device 1 to the life time register 21
A signal is sent to.

The software extracts data from the life register 21 and performs analysis. That is, the software includes the current operating time of the disk, the cumulative operating time so far, the expected failure rate of the disk, the disk life storage element 1
The reliability of the disk and the like are displayed based on the lifetime of the disk 2.

According to the second embodiment, a new effect that the life of the hard disk can be managed by software can be obtained.

[Operation of Second Embodiment] Next, the operation of the second embodiment according to the present invention will be described in detail.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation flow of the second embodiment according to the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 4, software 30 comprises:
As shown in FIG. 4, data is taken from the life register 21 and
The processing 31 is performed, and the input data analysis processing 32 performs the operation time up to the present time after the power is supplied to the hard disk 3, the accumulated operation time up to now, the expected failure rate of the disk, the disk life The calculation of the reliability of the disk or the like is performed from the life time of the disk, and the result of the analysis is displayed on the display 33.

[0036]

The present invention is constructed and operates as described above. Therefore, according to the present invention, the following effects can be obtained.

The first effect is that the operator can know that the life of the hard disk has come.

For this reason, by switching to a new hard disk when it is still operable, it is possible to prevent program and data from being damaged or destroyed due to aging of the disk.

The second effect is that the life time diagnosis device can be provided at a low price without special hardware because it is a simple circuit.

For this reason, it is possible to know the lifetime of the disk without deteriorating the cost performance of the disk, that is, the price-to-capacity ratio, and it is possible to store data with confidence.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a first embodiment according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an accumulation timer comparison circuit according to the present invention shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a second embodiment according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an operation example of the second embodiment according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Life time diagnosis apparatus 2 ... Power supply circuit 3 ... Hard disk 4 ... Cumulative timer comparison circuit 5 ... External display circuit 6 ... Display element 11 ... Cumulative timer 12 ... Disk life time storage element 13 ... Comparator 21 ... Life time register 31 ... Data fetch Process 32: Input data analysis process 33: Display display

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A hard disk, an accumulative timer comparing circuit for supplying an output signal to the hard disk when power is supplied simultaneously with activation of the hard disk and generating an output signal when the life of the hard disk exceeds a pre-stored life time, A hard disk with a life time self-diagnosis device, comprising: an external display circuit that is supplied with the output signal of the circuit and externally notifies the life of the hard disk through a display element. . 2. The accumulative timer comparison circuit in the life time diagnosis device accumulates the number of uses of the hard disk and outputs an accumulative value, and stores a disk life value of the hard disk used for use. Comparing the disk life value output from the disk life storage element with the cumulative value of the number of times of use output from the accumulation timer, and calculating the cumulative value of the number of times of use of the disk. 2. The hard disk with a life time self-diagnosis device according to claim 1, further comprising: a comparator that generates an output signal when the life time value exceeds the life time value. 3. The current operation time of the hard disk output from the life time diagnosis device, the accumulated operation time up to now, the reliability of the hard disk predicted from the life time of the disk life storage element, and future prospects. The hard disk with a life time self-diagnosis device according to claim 1, further comprising a life register for storing a failure rate of the hard disk and the like. 4. The reliability of the hard disk predicted from the current operating time of the hard disk stored in the life register, the cumulative operating time up to now, the life time of the disk life storage element, Further comprising: data acquisition processing means for acquiring data such as a failure rate of a hard disk; input data analysis processing means for analyzing the acquired data; and display display means for displaying the analyzed data. The hard disk with a life time self-diagnosis device according to claim 3.