JP3279854B2 - Recording and playback device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a recording and reproducing apparatus for recording and reproducing information, and more particularly to a recording and reproducing apparatus for recording and reproducing information by exchanging a plurality of types of recording media such as a disk-shaped recording medium and a card-shaped recording medium. The present invention relates to a recording / reproducing apparatus that facilitates connection between an apparatus and a higher-level apparatus, and that prevents malfunction due to exchange of a recording medium.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, optical disks have features such as a high recording density, a long medium life due to non-contact recording and reproduction, and a much faster random access than a medium such as a tape. Many proposals have been made, such as a compact disk player and a video disk player as playback-only devices, and image files, data files, and document files as recording and playback devices. In particular, when used as a data file, one device may be used recently due to problems such as limitations on the number of connectable devices due to restrictions on the host device and an increase in the investment amount due to the purchase of a plurality of different types of devices. A device has been proposed in which a plurality of types of information recording media are mounted and used. This apparatus uses, for example, a rewritable information recording medium and a write-once information recording medium with one recording / reproducing apparatus, or uses a rewritable information recording medium and a read-only information recording medium with one recording / reproducing apparatus. Recording and reproducing device.

When a plurality of types of information recording media as described above are mounted on a single recording / reproducing apparatus connected to a higher-level device and used, a UNI of American AT & T incorporated in the higher-level device is used.
X, MS-DOS of Microsoft Corporation, Apple Inc., Macintosh, etc., under the control of any of a number of operating system software (hereinafter referred to as OS), this recording / reproducing apparatus can carry a large amount of information. In order to use it as a medium or as a substitute for a fixed magnetic disk, it is necessary to register an upper-level connection control device (hereinafter, referred to as a device driver) for recognizing a recording / reproducing device in each OS. Through this device driver, the recording / reproducing apparatus can be used as a memory from which data can be read and written on each OS. The present invention relates to improving the connectivity between these recording / reproducing devices and a higher-level connection control device.

In order to connect the optical disk recording / reproducing apparatus to a host computer as a host apparatus, a device driver corresponding to each OS is required. This device driver executes read / write processing of a logical format corresponding to each OS and exchanges an optical disk which is a feature of the optical disk recording / reproducing apparatus, in order to make the optical disk recording / reproducing apparatus usable on each OS. It has functions such as executing a process accompanying the optical disk exchange in the case, and is essential software when using a peripheral device such as an optical disk recording / reproducing apparatus on each OS.

[0005] Referring to the drawings, an example of a conventional recording / reproducing apparatus and a higher-level connection control apparatus thereof will be described.
A description will be made using a case where the personal computer OS is connected to an MS-DOS manufactured by Microsoft Corporation in the United States via an r system interface (r System Interface).

In the case of the MS-DOS, a plurality of types of device drivers are registered for one peripheral device identification number (hereinafter, ID number) of one SCSI device by forcibly registering the device regardless of the status of the device. It is possible.

FIG. 5 shows, as an example, a system environment in which an optical disk recording / reproducing apparatus which can handle a rewritable optical disk and a CD-ROM type optical disk by one unit is connected to a computer incorporating MS-DOS. Is shown. In FIG. 5, the host computer 51 has an SC
An SI interface host adapter card (command issuing means) 52 is mounted, and an ID number 7 is assigned to this. The host adapter card 52 is connected by a cable to a hard disk device 53 to which an ID number 0 is assigned, and is further connected by a cable to an ID number 1 that can handle both a rewritable optical disk and a CD-ROM optical disk by one unit. Are connected to the optical disk recording / reproducing device 54 to which is assigned. In the figure, a so-called daisy-chain connection is used, but electrically, the hard disk device 53, the optical disk recording / reproducing device 54, and an externally connected external storage device (not shown) are all connected in parallel to the SCSI bus.

FIG. 6 shows, as an example, a conventional device driver for connecting and using an optical disk recording / reproducing apparatus capable of exchanging a rewritable optical disk and a CD-ROM type optical disk with a computer for MS-DOS. The configuration is shown. In FIG. 6, an OS MS-DOS 64 is connected to a device driver 61 for a rewritable optical disk recording / reproducing device which enables a rewritable optical disk to be handled on a host computer. The driver 61 includes a rewritable optical disk file access processing unit 611 that performs data reading, writing, disk exchange processing, and the like on the rewritable optical disk, and an optical disk recording / reproducing device 6.
3 includes an error processing unit 612 that performs error processing based on the various types of error information returned by the control unit 3 and reports an error to the host computer when recovery is still impossible.

The MS-DOS 64 is connected to a device driver 62 for a CD-ROM type optical disk reproducing apparatus which enables the host computer to handle the CD-ROM type optical disk. Device driver 62 includes a CD-RO
A CD-ROM type optical disk file access processing unit 621 for reading data from an M-type optical disk and performing disk exchange processing;
And an error processing unit 622 for executing an error process based on the various types of error information returned from the host computer and reporting an error to the host computer when recovery is still not possible.

The rewritable optical disk recording / reproducing device driver 61 and the CD-ROM type optical disk reproducing device device driver 62 can handle both a rewritable optical disk and a CD-ROM type optical disk with one device. The optical disk recording / reproducing device 63 is connected,
ID number 1 is assigned.

FIG. 7 shows the system environment shown in FIG.
Device driver 724 for hard disk device 75 and optical disk recording / reproducing device 7 when used in DOS
The state of the MS-DOS in which the conventional device drivers for 6 (the rewritable device driver 725 and the CD-ROM device driver 726) are registered, and the internal operation of various MS-DOS commands specified by the user will be described. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a system connection and an internal operation of MS-DOS.

Referring to FIG. 7, an MS-DOS input / display unit 71 for inputting a command to be executed from a keyboard or the like on the MS-DOS by the user and displaying the execution result.
Is connected to an MS-DOS 72 in which device drivers for various recording / reproducing devices to be connected to the outside are registered. Various device drivers 724, 725, and 726 are connected via a host adapter card 73 for SCSI interface as command issuing means. The SCSI bus 74 is connected to a hard disk drive 75 to which an ID number 0 is assigned, a rewritable optical disk and a CD.
-An optical disk recording / reproducing apparatus 76 to which an ID number 1 that can handle both of the ROM type optical disks by exchanging one optical disk is connected. In the OS internal configuration diagram of the MS-DOS 72, 721 is a COMMAND.COM that interprets the MS-DOS command input by the user in the MS-DOS input / display unit 71. COM, 722 is an MS-DOS. SYS 723 manages the reading / writing of data to / from various connected external storage devices. SYS, in which the MS-DOS command designated by the user is a device for selecting a device driver to be used by determining which external storage device the command is for among various external storage devices to which the MS-DOS command is connected. Driver selection means 7231 is included. The device driver selecting means 7231 is a hard disk drive 75
Device driver 724 for optical disk recording / reproducing device 7
6, a rewritable optical disk device driver 725, a CD-ROM type optical disk device driver 726 of the optical disk recording / reproducing device 76, and a floppy disk device driver 728 are selected. Reference numeral 727 denotes an execution processing unit for executing an MS-DOS command input by the user.

When MS-DOS starts under the system environment configured as described above, MS-DOS assigns an alphabetical drive name to each external storage device. For example, drive A and drive B are floppy disk drives (not shown), and drive C is a hard disk drive 7
5, the D drive is an optical disk recording / reproducing device 76 when a rewritable optical disk is mounted, and the E drive is a CD-RO.
Allocated for optical disk recording / reproducing device 76 when M-type optical disk is mounted.

The MS-DOS command specified by the user is "d" for displaying the contents of a file stored on the rewritable optical disk mounted on the optical disk recording / reproducing device 76.
irD: ”command, COMMAND.C
The OM 721 interprets the command and outputs the command to the MS-DOS.
SYS722 and IO. Instruct SYS 723 to execute the process. In this example, since the command specified by the user is for the D drive, the device driver selecting unit 7231 selects the rewritable optical disk device driver 725 based on the drive name “D:” in the MS-DOS command. The SCS required for the optical disc recording / reproducing device 76 via this device driver
A series of MS-DOS command processing is completed by issuing an I-command and displaying the execution result on the MS-DOS input / display unit 71 in the MS-DOS command execution processing unit 727.

FIG. 8 shows a processing procedure of the internal processing of the MS-DOS command input by the user after the MS-DOS system is started. In a method of registering two device drivers for a rewritable optical disk and a device driver for a CD-ROM type optical disk as one device driver for an optical disk recording / reproducing apparatus on the MS-DOS, for example, as shown in FIG. The drive is recognized as a D drive when the optical disk is mounted, and as an E drive when the optical disk is mounted. In the MS-DOS, the drive name to which the MS-DOS command is issued is determined by the user to issue the MS-DOS command, and the user is required to issue a plurality of rewritable optical discs and CD-ROM type drives. They own optical disks and use these optical disks while changing them according to the situation.
For this purpose, the user designates a drive name different from the type of the optical disc mounted on the optical disc recording and
An S-DOS command is issued, and the user may notice an error in the drive name due to an error returned from the OS, and give a command again. The internal processing procedure of the MS-DOS when a command is issued with an incorrect drive name designation will be described with reference to FIG.

First, the MS-DOS which has started the system in step 801 waits for a command input by the user in step 802. In step 802, the user intends to copy the entire contents of the hard disk device 75 of the C drive to the D drive which is the optical disk recording / reproducing device 76 loaded with the rewritable optical disk, and mistakenly sets the copy destination drive name to the CD-ROM type optical disk. When "Xcopy c: \ e: \ / s" is instructed for the first time as an MS-DOS command designating the E drive, the drive names of the MS-DOS command input by the user are C drive and E drive. In step 803, MS-DOS reads the CD from the hard disk device.
-The device driver selecting means 7231 in FIG. 7 selects the CD-ROM device driver 726 by interpreting the command as a command to the ROM device.

The CD-ROM device driver 726 checks the state of the optical disk recording / reproducing device 76 in step 804. Normally, this confirmation operation is performed using a TEST UNIT READY command defined in the SCSI command. In response to this command, the optical disk recording / reproducing device 76 provides information indicating that the optical disk has been changed while the disk is mounted. Report. In step 805, it is determined that the optical disc is loaded,
In step 806, it is determined that the optical disk has been replaced, and in step 807, a process of reading management information of the optical disk is executed. However, although the CD-ROM type device driver expects that the management information of the CD-ROM type optical disk is reported, the CD-ROM type device driver actually
The management information returned by 6 is for a rewritable optical disk.
Therefore, in step 808, it cannot be determined that the management information is correct, and in step 811 error information is set. In step 812, the MS-DOS displays an error indicating that the optical disk with the specified drive name cannot be read.
This error display allows the user to notice that the designation of the drive name was incorrect.

The user does not remove the rewritable optical disk once, but in the step 802, the second time with the correct drive name, "Xcopy c: \ d: \ /
s ", the rewritable device driver is selected in step 803. The selected rewritable device driver checks the state of the optical disk recording / reproducing device 76 in step 813, but the SC
In the SI command, the optical disk exchange information includes an Inquiry command immediately after the exchange and a Request Se
Since it is defined that the command is returned only once for commands other than the nse command, the optical disc exchange information has already been returned in response to the TEST UNIT READY command for status confirmation from the first CD-ROM device driver in step 804. Step 81
No optical disk exchange information is returned for the status confirmation in 3. Therefore, in step 815, it is determined that there is no optical disk replacement, and the reading of the optical disk management information is not executed in step 816, and the command processing instructed in step 818 is executed, but the reading of the optical disk management information in step 816 is executed. Therefore, the command processing is executed using the management information of the rewritable optical disk mounted before the optical disk replacement, instead of the management information of the optical disk mounted this time.

In response to the normal termination confirmation in step 819, the normal termination is reported, and the display of the command execution result in step 812 is also reported to the user to the effect that the termination has been completed normally. However, actually, a new file is created based on management information of a different optical disk. In order to obtain the management information of this rewritable optical disk, once take out this rewritable optical disk, mount it on the optical disk recording / reproducing device 76 again, and then issue an MS-DOS command. There is a serious problem that files on the optical disk cannot be read and written normally.

The cause of such a problem will be described based on the configuration of the recording / reproducing apparatus. Referring to FIG. 9 which is a block diagram showing the details of the inside of the conventional optical disk recording / reproducing apparatus 76, the peripheral device identification information separating means 91 of the optical disk recording / reproducing apparatus 76 is connected to the SCSI bus 74 and After separating the identification numbers, the switching means 91a switches the information transmission in accordance with the peripheral device identification numbers. The output is logical unit information separating means 9 for separating logical unit information from the input information.
2 are connected. Switching means 93 receives the separated logical unit information and switches information transmission in accordance with the logical unit number. Rewritable optical disk control means 94 and C for controlling rewritable optical disk
CD as control means for controlling a D-ROM type optical disc
The input and output of the ROM type optical disk control means 95 are selected based on the detection result of the medium type detection means 98 for detecting the type of the optical disk mounted on the recording / reproduction means 97 for reading / writing the optical disk. Means 9
6a and 96b.

Next, the operation when the information as shown in FIG. 11 is received from the SCSI bus 74 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. When accessing the optical disk recording / reproducing device 76, the device drivers 725 and 726 are set so that the logical unit number is set to 0.
Is set, or the device drivers 725 and 726 automatically recognize them.
Starting at step 1001, at step 1002, the optical disk recording / reproducing device 76 of ID number 1
The command as shown in FIG. 11 is received from the host device of D number 7. In step 1003, the peripheral device identification number is checked. If it is not 1, the process returns to step 1002. If it is 1, the switching unit 91a is on, so the logical unit number is checked in step 1004. If not, the switching means 93 has been released, so that in step 1005, an inaccessible state is returned to the host device, and the process returns to step 1002. If the logical unit number is 0, it is determined in step 1006 whether the loaded optical disk is a rewritable optical disk or a CD-ROM optical disk. In step 1007, the rewritable optical disk control means 94 is selected, or in step 1008, CD-ROM
It is determined whether or not to select the type optical disk control means 95.

In this case, the aforementioned optical disk recording / reproducing device 7
In the case where the user intends to access the rewritable optical disc of the D drive actually mounted on the recording / reproducing means 97 of No. 6 and accidentally accesses the CD-ROM (not actually mounted) of the E drive. In the example, CD
-TEST UNIT from ROM device driver
In step 1006, the type of the mounted medium is checked in response to the READY command. In FIG. 9, the medium type detecting unit 98 detects that the mounted optical disk is a rewritable optical disk. , 96b have selected the rewritable optical disk control means 94, and have accessed the recording / reproducing means 97 using the rewritable optical disk control means 94 in step 1009, and an optical disk exchange has occurred in step 1010. Report information to that effect.
Based on this information, the CD-ROM device driver 7
26 attempts to acquire the optical disk management information, but because the management information for the rewritable optical disk is returned, it cannot be determined that the management information is correct, and the MS-DOS 72 issues an error indicating that the optical disk cannot be read. / Display section 7
1 is displayed.

When the user notices from the error display that the designation of the drive name has been mistaken, the user accesses with the correct drive name as described above for the second time. However, as described above, the CD-ROM device driver 726 is used. TE from
Since the optical disk exchange information has already been returned in response to the ST UNIT READY command, the optical disk exchange information is not returned, and as a result, the management information is not read. Since the command processing is executed using the management information of the rewritable optical disk that was previously mounted, the management information and the data as described above do not match, and there is a serious problem that the file of the optical disk cannot be read and written normally. appear.

[0024]

In the above-described configuration of the conventional recording / reproducing apparatus capable of exchanging media, each device driver manages a plurality of types of media via one logical unit number. Therefore, when an unauthorized device driver accesses the medium, logical information (medium exchange information, etc.) of the medium is returned to the unauthorized device driver, and the logical information is lost. Lose control. Specifically, as described above, after replacing the optical disk, the user issues a drive name incorrectly and issues an MS-DOS command to a medium that is not mounted on the recording / reproducing apparatus, and sends the MS-DOS command via an unauthorized device driver. -When a drive name is specified incorrectly by the DOS error display and the MS-DOS command is reissued with the proper drive name without removing the optical disk once, the optical disk exchange information is lost and is not recognized normally. In the worst case, there has been a problem that data on a rewritable optical disk used up to now cannot be read or written.

As one solution to this problem,
There is a method of modifying MS-DOS and integrating device drivers for each medium (change of a higher-level device), but the scale of change is large and implementation is extremely difficult.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, and by changing the recording / reproducing apparatus in order to realize easier and more reliable connection to a host computer, this recording / reproducing apparatus is improved. It is an object of the present invention to provide a recording / reproducing apparatus which can use a plurality of types of recording / reproducing media with one unit without changing an existing device driver developed for a plurality of types of recording media which can be used in a computer.

In order to achieve this object, a recording / reproducing apparatus according to the present invention comprises a recording / reproducing means on which a plurality of types of recording media can be mounted, and a plurality of types corresponding to a plurality of types using the recording / reproducing means. A plurality of control means for accessing the recording medium, a detecting means for detecting a type of the recording medium mounted on the recording / reproducing means, and a control means for selecting a control means connected to the recording / reproducing means by the detecting means. and second switching means, a first switching means for distributing the instructions from the instruction issuing means of the host device to the control means, of the host system
Separating the information for specifying the control means included in the instructions from the instruction issuing means and an information separating means for operating said first switching means, said control means, said first switching means Selected by the host device via the
When not connected to the recording / reproducing means by a step
Is a higher-level device, have rows error notification only to the effect that access can recording medium is not loaded, the recording medium is replaced
Does not output the medium exchange information indicating that

Further, at least one of the control means, which is not connected to the recording / reproducing means, comprises:
An error notification that access is not possible is made because the type of the recording medium accessible by the control unit and the type of the recording medium detected by the detecting unit do not match.

[0029]

According to the present invention, when one type of information recording medium is connected to a host computer as a host device and used by using one recording / reproducing device, the host device uses one recording / reproducing means. For each medium that can be mounted on the medium, information for specifying control means for controlling the medium is assigned and transmitted. The information separating means separates the information specifying the control means, thereby operating the first switching means to select the control means for controlling the corresponding medium, thereby connecting the device driver of the higher-level device to the medium. Can be directly connected. Therefore, even if an unauthorized device driver attempts to access the medium, the medium is not accessed, so that the logical information of the medium is not lost and the information can be obtained accurately.

[0030]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a recording / reproducing apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, the optical disk recording / reproducing apparatus 10 receives information from a SCSI bus 74. The input information separates the peripheral device identification number by the peripheral device identification information separating means 1 and controls the switching means 3a according to the peripheral device identification number. Next, the logical unit information is separated by the logical unit information separating means 2, and the switching means 3b, which is the first switching means, receives the separated logical unit information. The information is transmitted to the rewritable optical disk control means 4 and to the CD-ROM control means 5 when the logical unit number is 1.

The recording / reproducing means 7 reads / writes data from / to a rewritable optical disk or CD-ROM type optical disk mounted thereon. The medium type detecting means 8 detects the type of the optical disk mounted on the recording / reproducing means 7, and when the detection result is a rewritable optical disk, the switching means 6, which is the second switching means, is sent to the rewritable optical disk control means 4, C
In the case of a D-ROM type optical disk, switching is performed so as to connect to the control means 5 for a CD-ROM type optical disk.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the internal operation of the recording / reproducing apparatus 10 of this embodiment, and FIG. 3 is a time-series diagram showing the status of information input from the host apparatus via the SCSI bus 74 in FIG. The operation will be described with reference to an explanatory diagram schematically shown and FIGS. 7 and 8 used for explanation in the conventional example. In FIG. 7, if the recording / reproducing apparatus 10 of this embodiment is used instead of the recording / reproducing apparatus 76, the other parts do not need to be changed at all. The operation of the host computer including the MS-DOS in which the device driver is registered, which is a higher-level device, is the same as that of the flowchart of FIG. 8 shown in the conventional example.

First, the recording / reproducing apparatus 10 which is turned on and activated in step 201 of FIG. 2 receives a command from a higher-level apparatus as shown in FIG. 3 in step 202. Step 203
The peripheral device identification information separating means 1 returns to step 202 if the peripheral device identification number 32 following the upper device identification number 31 in the command from the upper device is not 1. If the peripheral device identification number 32 is 1, the switching means 3a is turned on, the logical unit number 33 is checked in step 204, and if it is not 0 or 1, access rejection is returned to the host device in step 205 and the process returns to step 202. .

Next, in the logical unit information separating means 2,
If the logical unit number 33, which is the information for specifying the control means in this embodiment, is 0, the switching means 3b, which is the first switching means in this embodiment, is switched to the rewritable optical disk control means 4 in step 206. If the logical unit number 33 is 1, the switching means 3 in step 207
b is switched to the control means 5 for the CD-ROM type optical disk.

Here, the operation of the host device will be described with reference to the same specific example as in the conventional example. In FIG. 8, the MS-DOS which has started the system in step 801 waits for a user command input in step 802. . In step 802, the user intends to copy the entire contents of the hard disk drive of the C drive to the D drive, which is an optical disk recording / reproducing apparatus loaded with a rewritable optical disk, and mistakenly changes the copy destination drive name when the CD-ROM type optical disk is mounted. As an MS-DOS command designating the E drive, the first time “Xcopy c: ￥ e: ￥ /
s ", the drive names of the MS-DOS command input by the user in step 803 are C drive and E drive, so that MS-DOS interprets the command as a command from the hard disk device to the CD-ROM device and interprets the device driver as a device driver. The selection means 7231 selects the CD-ROM device driver 726. The CD-ROM device driver 726 executes a state check of the optical disk recording / reproducing device 76 in step 804. Usually, this check operation is defined by a SCSI command. TEST UNITRE
The ADY command is used for the logical unit number 1. In response to this command, the CD-ROM type optical disk control unit 5 of the optical disk recording / reproducing apparatus 10 mounts the recording / reproduction unit 7 in step 208 of FIG. It is checked whether or not the selected medium is a disc in which the control means selected by the device driver as the higher-level device matches. As described above, the type of the medium mounted on the recording / reproducing means 7 is detected by the medium type detecting means 8 and the switching means 6 is switched based on the result.
If the rewritable optical disk is mounted in spite of selecting the ROM, the switching means 6 has selected the rewritable optical disk control means 4 and the switching means 3 has been switched by the logical unit information separating means 2 to the CD-ROM. Since the ROM type optical disk control means 5 is selected and the CD-ROM type optical disk control means 5 is not connected to the recording / reproducing means 7, it cannot be accessed, and cannot be accessed in step 209 (the optical disk is not mounted). Therefore, the process returns to step 202. Since the recording / reproducing means 7 is not accessed and only the response to the host device is performed, the optical disk exchange information is not lost. Based on this error notification, it is determined in step 805 that the optical disk is not loaded, error information is set in step 811, and in step 812, the MS-DOS displays an error indicating that the optical disk with the specified drive name is not prepared. The error notice allows the user to notice that the designation of the drive name was incorrect.

The user does not remove the rewritable optical disk, but in the step 802, the second time with the correct drive name, "Xcopy c: \ d: \ /
In step 803, the rewritable device driver 725 is selected. In step 813, the selected rewritable device driver checks the status of the optical disk recording / reproducing apparatus 10 to the logical unit number 0. In this case, since the higher-level device indicates the logical unit number 0 and matches the loaded medium, steps 206 to 208 in FIG.
The recording / reproducing means 7 is accessed via the rewritable optical disk control means 4 through the path -210.

Unlike the conventional example, the first TEST UNIT READY command for checking the status from the CD-ROM device driver 726 in step 804 of FIG. 8 does not access the recording / reproducing means 7, so that the optical disk exchange information is lost. Not. As a result, in step 211 of FIG. 2, the optical disk exchange information is returned together with the information that the optical disk is present. Therefore, it is determined in step 815 in FIG. 8 that the optical disk has been changed, the optical disk management information is correctly read in step 816, the management information is determined to be correct in step 817, and the command processing instructed in step 818 is executed. In step 819, the process ends normally. Therefore, since the command processing is executed based on the correct optical disc management information, the problem that the management information does not match the data as in the conventional example does not occur.

Next, as a second embodiment, as a modification of the first embodiment, a configuration having a plurality of logical unit information separating means 2 can be considered. That is, although not shown, the first embodiment
In which the output of the peripheral device identification information separating means 1 is branched to a plurality of logical unit information separating means corresponding to a plurality of logical unit numbers, and each logical unit information separating means is controlled by the separated logical unit number. Turn on the means. This method is suitable for properly using three or more different media, and does not increase the cost when the logical unit information separating means is constituted by software.

As described above, in the first and second embodiments, the logical unit information separating means for switching the first switching means by the logical unit number which is information for specifying the control means corresponding to the type of medium in the recording / reproducing apparatus. When a logical unit number corresponding to the loaded medium is received, the logical unit number is connected to the recording / reproducing means 7 via the control means corresponding to the medium, so that the host computer as an upper apparatus can be more easily connected. It realizes reliable connection and prevents a malfunction of the recording / reproducing apparatus due to an erroneous command.

In the present embodiment, the switching means 3b and 6 are shown as changeover switches. However, the same function can be achieved by using a number of switches corresponding to the number of circuits to be changed and turning on one of them. .

Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.
This will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a recording / reproducing apparatus 10a according to a third embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is the first
The difference from FIG. 1 of the embodiment is that the peripheral device identification information separating means 1a and 1b and the logical unit information separating means 2a and 2b differ for each medium control means, that is, for each type of medium used.
And switching means 3c and 3d respectively controlled by the peripheral device identification information separating means 1a and 1b, and switching means 3e and 3f respectively controlled by the logical unit information separating means 2a and 2b. The device identification information separating means 1a and the peripheral device identification information separating means 1b can each independently receive a command from a higher-level device from the SCSI bus 74, and the peripheral device identification information separating means 1a receives the command from the SCSI bus in this embodiment. When the peripheral device identification number which is the information for specifying the control means is 1, the switching means 3c which is the first switching means in this embodiment.
Is turned on, and the logical unit information separating means 2a turns on the switching means 3e when the logical unit number is 0 to connect the rewritable optical disk control means 4 to the SCSI bus 74. On the other hand, the peripheral device identification information separating means 1b
When the peripheral device identification number, which is information for specifying the control means in this embodiment, is 2 from the I bus 74, the switching means 3d, which is the first switching means in this embodiment, is turned on, and the logical unit information is turned on. The separating means 2b turns on the switching means 3f when the logical unit number is 0,
D-ROM type optical disk control means 5 is connected to SCSI bus 7
Connect to 4.

In the first and second embodiments, the logical unit number is used as the information for specifying the control means. In the third embodiment, the peripheral device identification number is used as the information for specifying the control means. . That is, the difference is that the control means is distinguished by the logical unit number, but is distinguished by the peripheral device identification number, and the configuration and operation of the other parts are the same as in the first embodiment.

Although not shown in the fourth embodiment, only one peripheral device identification information separating means is connected to the SCSI bus 74, and the logical unit information separating means is prepared by the number of control means. The switching means performs branch switching so as to be connected to the corresponding logical unit information separating means by the peripheral device identification number separated by the peripheral device identification information separating means, and if the logical unit number is 0 in the logical unit information separating means, You may comprise so that it may be connected to the corresponding control means.

As described above, in the third and fourth embodiments, the recording / reproducing apparatus has the number of peripheral device identification information separating means corresponding to the type of medium, or the switching control of the switching means according to the type of medium. When a peripheral device identification number corresponding to a medium is received from a higher-level device as information for specifying the control device, the control device corresponding to the medium is connected, The purpose of the present invention is to realize easier and more reliable connection to a host computer as a device and prevent a malfunction of the recording / reproducing device due to an erroneous command.

As described above, in each of the above-described embodiments, a single optical disk can be added to the host computer used on the MS-DOS by making a minimal change such as making a slight change to the switching means of the recording / reproducing apparatus. When connecting and using an information recording / reproducing device capable of handling a plurality of different optical disks in the device, an optical disk exchange which occurs when a user specifies an incorrect drive name and instructs an MS-DOS command. It is possible to solve the problem that information cannot be detected.

Although the case where a rewritable optical disk and a CD-ROM type optical disk are used as the medium has been described here, a write-once optical disk may be used instead of or in addition to any one. In that case, in the first embodiment, the corresponding logical unit number and the corresponding control means may be changed or added. In the second embodiment, the corresponding logical unit number, the corresponding control means, In the third embodiment, a corresponding peripheral device identification number, a corresponding peripheral device identification information separating unit,
The corresponding logical unit information separating means may be changed or added. In the fourth embodiment, the corresponding peripheral device identification number and the corresponding logical unit information separating means are added, and the peripheral device identifying information separating means is added. May correspond to the changed or added peripheral device identification number.

Although the case where the optical disk is used as the medium has been described here, the medium is not limited to the optical disk,
A medium that can be used interchangeably with one recording / reproducing apparatus, for example, a magnetic recording medium, a semiconductor memory, or the like, or a mixture thereof may be used.

Further, in each embodiment, two types of media are used. However, even if there are three or more types, the logical unit number or the peripheral device identification number and the control means, and in some cases, the logical unit information separating means or the peripheral device identification information Needless to say, this can be realized by adding a separating means.

Further, it goes without saying that the control means, the peripheral device identification information separating means and the logical unit information separating means can be constituted by software.

Further, in the above embodiment, MS-D is used as the OS.
Although the description has been made on the assumption that the OS is used and the host adapter card for SCSI interface is used as the command issuing means, the present invention relates to the configuration of the recording / reproducing apparatus. It goes without saying that the idea of the invention can be applied.

[0051]

As described above, the recording / reproducing apparatus of the present invention can mount a plurality of types of recording media.
Recording and reproducing means, a plurality of control means for accessing a corresponding plurality of types of recording medium using the recording and reproducing means,
Detecting means for detecting the type of the recording medium mounted on the recording / reproducing means, second switching means for selecting a control means connected to the recording / reproducing means by the detecting means, and an instruction from an instruction issuing means of the host device Yes a first switching means for distributing the control means, and information separating means for operating the first switching means separates the information specifying the control means included in the instructions from the instruction issuing means of the host device The control means is selected by the host device via the first switching means, and the control means is secondly selected.
If not connected to the recording / reproducing means by a step,
The host device, have rows error notification only to the effect that access can be recorded medium is not at least attached, recording medium exchange
It does not output the medium exchange information indicating that the media has been exchanged .

For this purpose, information is recorded on or reproduced from a plurality of different types of information recording media of a rewritable type, a read-only type, a write-once type, or a combination of these types of optical disks. When a recording / reproducing apparatus having a function is connected to a higher-level apparatus such as a host computer and used, even if the user instructs a command by erroneously specifying a drive name, the higher-level apparatus is used for one recording / reproducing unit. By allocating and transmitting a logical unit number or a peripheral device identification number, which is information for specifying the control means, for each medium that can be loaded, the information separation means operates the first switching means to output the logical unit number or the peripheral unit identification number. By selecting control means for controlling the medium corresponding to the peripheral device identification number, the device driver can be directly connected to the medium, Even normal device driver tries to access the medium, since the medium is not accessed,
The medium exchange information of the information recording medium can be accurately obtained without losing the logical information of the medium, and the device driver for connection to each host computer already developed for each information recording medium is used as it is. This makes it possible to enhance the connectivity with a higher-level device, prevent erroneous operation even when erroneous operation is performed, and expand the range of use of the device.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a recording and reproducing apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation inside the recording / reproducing apparatus.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing information input from the higher-level device in chronological order.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a recording / reproducing apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a system configuration diagram of a conventional example.

FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram of a conventional higher-order connection control device.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating system connection and internal operation of MS-DOS.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of an MS-DOS command processing procedure.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a conventional recording / reproducing apparatus.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing an operation inside the recording / reproducing apparatus.

FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing information input from the host device in a time-series manner.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1, 1a, 1b Peripheral device identification information separating means 2, 2a, 2b Logical unit information separating means 3b, 3c, 3d First switching means 4 Control means for rewritable optical disk 5 Control means for CD-ROM type optical disk 6 Second Switching means 7 recording / reproducing means 8 medium type detecting means 10, 10a recording / reproducing apparatus

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Shunji Kagamihashi 1006 Kazuma Kadoma, Osaka Prefecture Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. JP-A-4-298856 (JP, A) JP-A-5-265914 (JP, A) JP-A-4-123361 (JP, A) JP-A-3-280147 (JP, A) JP-A-3-214225 (JP, A)

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. A one recording and reproducing means capable of mounting a plurality of types of recording medium, a plurality of control means for accessing a plurality of types of recording medium corresponding with said recording means, the recording A detecting means for detecting the type of the recording medium mounted on the reproducing means, and a second means for selecting a control means connected to the recording and reproducing means by the detecting means.
Switching means for distributing an instruction from an instruction issuing means of a higher-level device to the control means;
And an information separating means for operating the said control means includes from the instruction issuing means of the instructions of separating the information identifying the first switching means, said control means, said first switching means Selected by the host device via the
Not connected to the recording / reproducing means by means
The, the host device, have rows error notification only to the effect that access can recording medium is not loaded, the recording medium is replaced
A recording / reproducing apparatus which does not output medium exchange information indicating that the recording / reproduction has been performed. 2. At least one of the control means, which is not connected to the recording / reproducing means, is configured so that the type of the recording medium accessible by the control means does not match the type of the recording medium detected by the detecting means. 2. The recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein an error notification indicating that access is not possible is performed. 3. The recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a SCSI interface is used as a command issuing unit of the host device, and a logical unit number is used as information for specifying the control unit. 4. The recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a SCSI interface is used as a command issuing means of the host device, and a peripheral device identification number is used as information for specifying the control means.