JP2001283500A - Information recording and reproducing means - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent the loss of information and the damage, etc., of a recording medium in an information recording and reproducing device which is operated by an internal power source even when the power supply from the internal power source ends during operation. SOLUTION: The reception intervals of a control command from a host computer and the residual amount of the internal power source (battery) 25 connected to a host computer by an USB I/F 23 not shown in Figure are measured by an internal power source residual quantity detecting means 24 in the information recording and reproducing device which is operated by the internal power source 25. A control command interpretation and execution means 22 judges the case the control command intervals are above the prescribed decision time or above and the residual quantity of the internal power source is below the prescribed decision value. The execution of the specific control command, such as writing to a recording medium means 21 and the initialization, is prohibited. Consequently, the loss of the data or the failure of the recording medium, etc., may be prevented even when the electric power supply from the internal power source ends during the operation.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information recording / reproducing apparatus, and more particularly, to an information recording / reproducing apparatus which records and reproduces information using an internal power supply.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, information recording / reproducing apparatuses which place importance on portability, such as notebook computers, have become widespread. An external memory device such as a floppy (registered trademark) disk drive supposed to be connected to such a device is configured to be operable by a battery as an internal power supply for emphasizing portability similarly to a notebook computer. Often.

For example, a battery-operated floppy disk drive will not operate after a long period of use because the battery discharge will end and the recording medium will be damaged if the battery is exhausted while accessing the recording medium. There is a problem.

In the case of recording file data on a floppy disk in an operating system such as a personal computer, the contents of the file data are divided and recorded in the data area in sector units, and the recorded sector numbers and the order are recorded in the data management area. To record.

Similarly, information such as a file name and a file creation date and time is recorded in a file name management area. To record one file, this data area, data management area,
Recording must be performed synchronously so that no inconsistency occurs in the file name management area.However, if the battery is exhausted when a part of these are recorded, inconsistency occurs in the data management on the floppy disk and in the worst case There was a problem that information on the entire floppy disk was lost.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the current state of the information recording / reproducing apparatus described above, and its purpose is to operate as long as the power supply from the internal power supply is continued. It is another object of the present invention to provide an information recording / reproducing apparatus that does not lose information or damage a recording medium even when the discharge of an internal power supply ends during operation.

[0007]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, an information recording / reproducing apparatus according to the present invention is capable of measuring a remaining time during which the internal power can be continuously supplied from the internal power remaining amount detecting means. If the detected and operable time becomes shorter than the predetermined time, the process of writing information to the recording medium means is prohibited, and only the reading process is executed.

[0008] Further, at the time of the write prohibition determination, the data area and the data management area are contradictory because the write processing is prohibited during a series of related control commands sent from the external control device. In order to prevent this, the write prohibition determination is performed only when the control command interval is longer than a predetermined time.

[0009]

According to the present invention, in an information recording / reproducing apparatus, a recording medium means for recording information, and an information recording / reproducing control means for recording information on the recording medium means or reproducing the information. A control command interpretation for interpreting a control command transmitted from an external device and transmitting a control command to the information recording / reproducing control means, a control command interval measurement for measuring a time interval of a control command transmitted from the external device, and When the execution result of the information recording / reproducing control unit is transmitted to the external device and the remaining amount of internal power obtained from the remaining amount of internal power detection unit is smaller than a predetermined determination value, the result is transmitted from an external device thereafter. Control command interpretation and execution means for executing control command selection for prohibiting execution of a specific control command, and power supply to the information recording / reproduction control means. An internal power supply means for supplying, characterized in that it comprises an internal power supply level detecting means for detecting a remaining time capable of supplying electric power is continuously said internal power supply means.

At this time, the information recording / reproducing apparatus acquires the remaining amount of the internal power supply means, and when the remaining time operable by the internal power supply means falls below a predetermined judgment time, the information recording / reproducing apparatus executes the internal power supply during execution of the control command. Since there is a possibility that the battery of the means is terminated and the operation is interrupted, a specific control command is selected and executed.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in accordance with the first aspect of the present invention, the control command selection by the control command interpreting and executing means is performed when the internal power supply amount is smaller than a predetermined determination value. Is longer than a predetermined time, execution of a specific control command transmitted from the external device thereafter is prohibited.

At this time, the execution of the control command is not prohibited in the middle of a series of related control commands sent from the external control device, and the operation is performed in the middle of a control unit that is not predicted by the external device. Interruption can be prevented.

[0013] The invention according to claim 3 is the invention according to claim 1 or 2.
According to the invention described in the invention, in the control command interpretation and control command selection in the execution means, the control command for which execution is prohibited is an information recording command to the recording medium means or an initialization command to the recording medium means. And

At this time, the battery of the internal power supply does not run out while the information on the recording medium is being changed, thereby preventing the information on the recording medium from being incompletely updated. In addition, by prohibiting writing at a break of a series of control commands sent from the external control device, information is not out of synchronization between the data area and the data management area, and contradicts information in the entire recording medium. Can be prevented from occurring.

The invention according to claim 4 is the first or second invention.
According to the invention described in the invention, the control command selection by the control command interpretation and execution means is characterized by transmitting the execution result to the external device when the execution of the control command is prohibited. At this time, since the external device can recognize that a part of the control command is prohibited from being executed, the control command is prevented from being retried, or a status is notified to a person operating the external device. It is possible to do.

The invention according to claim 5 is the invention according to claim 1 or 2.
The present invention is characterized in that the internal power supply means is a storage battery (battery).

The invention according to claim 6 is the first or second invention.
In the invention described above, the recording medium means is a disk-shaped recording medium such as an optical disk or a magnetic disk.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention described in claims 1 to 6 of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of an information recording / reproducing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an external storage device according to the present embodiment.
5 is a flowchart illustrating command processing according to the present embodiment.

In FIG. 1, a USB (Universal Serial Bu) is connected to a host computer 10.
s) In the example shown in FIG.
15 is connected, and the host computer 10 is configured to be able to transmit control commands to the external storage devices 11 to 15.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the internal configuration of the external storage devices 11 to 15 connected to the host computer 10 of FIG. When the external storage devices 11 to 15 execute a control command from the host computer 10, the control command from the host computer 10 is first transmitted to the USB I / F.
23 receives. Next, the USB I / F 23 transfers the received control command to the control command interpretation and execution means 22. The control command interpreting / executing means 22 interprets the control command, transfers only the control command to be executed to the information recording / reproducing control means 20, and executes the control command.

Here, the control command interpreting and executing means 22
Will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. 3 and 4.

First, in step S300 shown in FIG. 3, a control command transmitted from the host computer 10 is obtained from the USB I / F 23. Next, step S3
At 01, the details of the control command are interpreted. At this point, it is possible to recognize the type of the control command such as whether the control command is for reading information from the recording medium means 21 or for writing.

Next, at step S302, the internal power supply remaining amount detection means 24 sends the internal power supply (battery) battery remaining amount Br.
To get. The internal power remaining amount detecting means 24 is realized by, for example, storing a terminal voltage of the battery 25 and a measurement result obtained by actually measuring the battery remaining amount.

In the following step S303, step S30
The remaining time Tr in which the information recording / reproducing apparatus can operate is calculated from the remaining battery level Br acquired in step 2. For example, this is realized by storing the result of actually measuring the relationship between the remaining battery level Br and the remaining time Tr.

Next, in step S304, the operable remaining time is compared with a predetermined reference value T1. If the remaining operable time is equal to or less than the predetermined time, step S3
05, if it is longer than the predetermined time, the process proceeds to step S308.

In step S305, the elapsed time from the time when the control command was received from the host computer 10 last time is calculated. Here, Tnow is the current time, Tbef
ore is the time when the previous command was received, Tdelt
a is the elapsed time.

In step S306, the elapsed time Tdelta calculated in step S305 is compared with a predetermined judgment value T2. If the elapsed time Tdelta is larger than the predetermined determination value T2, it is determined that the command is not in the middle of a series of related control commands from the operation system, and the command execution restriction flag Fc is set in step S307.

In step S308, step S308
As a result of the determination in 304, if the remaining operable time is equal to or longer than the predetermined time, the command execution restriction flag Fc is cleared.

Next, steps S309 to S31 shown in FIG.
In step 4, command execution and execution prohibition are determined based on the command execution restriction flag Fc set in steps S307 and S308.

In step S309, it is determined whether the command execution restriction flag Fc has been set. If the command execution restriction flag Fc is not set,
In step S310, all control commands are executed.
Then, in step S313, a return value corresponding to the execution result is set.

If the command execution restriction flag Fc is set in step S309, it is first determined in step S311 whether the command is a write command to the recording medium unit 21. If it is a write command, step S314
To set the command execution result as, for example, a write inhibit error. Similarly, in step S312, it is determined whether the control command is an initialization command for the recording medium unit 21. If the control command is an initialization command, the command execution result is set to, for example, a write-prohibited error in step S314. Here, the return value is a write inhibit error existing in the related art, but any other convenient value does not cause any problem.

Finally, in step S315, the current time Tnow is stored as the time Tbefore when the previous command was received for calculating the next control command interval.

[0034]

As described above, according to the information recording / reproducing apparatus of the present invention, when the information recording / reproducing apparatus operates on the internal power supply, the reception interval of the control command from the host computer and the remaining amount of the internal power supply are reduced. When the measured and control command interval is equal to or longer than a predetermined judgment time and the operable remaining time calculated based on the remaining amount of internal power is equal to or shorter than a predetermined judgment value, writing to a recording medium, or initialization, etc. By prohibiting the execution of the control command, even if the power supply from the internal power supply is terminated during operation, it is possible to prevent loss of data, damage to the recording medium, and the like.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of an information recording / reproducing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an external storage device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating command processing according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating command processing according to the embodiment of the present invention;

[Explanation of symbols]

10 Host Computer 11-15 External Storage Device 16 USB (Universal Serial B)
us) 20 information recording / reproduction control means 21 recording medium means 22 control command interpretation and execution means 23 USB I / F 24 internal power remaining amount detection means 25 internal power supply (battery)

Claims (6)

[Claims] A recording medium for recording information; an information recording / reproducing control unit for recording / reproducing information on / from the recording medium; and an information recording / reproducing apparatus for interpreting a control command transmitted from an external device. Interpretation of a control command for transmitting a control command to a reproduction control unit, measurement of a control command interval for measuring a time interval between control commands transmitted from the external device, and execution of transmitting an execution result of the information recording / reproduction control unit to the external device If the internal power remaining amount acquired from the internal power remaining amount detecting means is smaller than a predetermined judgment value, the control command selection for inhibiting execution of a specific control command transmitted from the external device thereafter is executed. Control command interpreting and executing means, an internal power supply means for supplying power to the information recording / reproducing control means, and an internal power supply means for continuously supplying power. An information recording / reproducing apparatus comprising an internal power remaining amount detecting means for detecting a remaining time that can be supplied. 2. The control command selection in the control command interpretation and execution means is performed when the control command interval is equal to or longer than a predetermined time in a state where the remaining amount of internal power is smaller than a predetermined judgment value. 2. The information recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein execution of a specific control command is prohibited. 3. The control command interpretation and control command selection in the execution means, wherein the control command for inhibiting execution is an information recording command to the recording medium means or an initialization command of the recording medium means. The information recording / reproducing device according to claim 1. 4. The control command selection in the control command interpretation and execution means, when execution of the control command is prohibited, is transmitted to the external device by transmitting the execution result. Information recording and reproducing device. 5. An information recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said internal power supply means is a storage battery. 6. The information recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said recording medium means is a disk-shaped recording medium such as an optical disk or a magnetic disk.