JP4901404B2 - Disk device writing control method and disk writing device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a disk device writing control method and a disk writing device, and more particularly to a method and device for performing writing control according to the characteristics of a disk device.

  The capacity required for a disk device used in a system for recording and reproducing image data including sound is increasing year by year as the image quality of the image data is improved. For this reason, a plurality of disk devices should be used, and some or all of them should be replaced to improve the capacity and write / read speed of the entire disk device, or a system that can handle repair and replacement as required. Is desirable.

  As techniques for using a plurality of disk devices, there are techniques disclosed in Patent Document 1 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-293315) and Patent Document 2 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-250644).

  Patent Document 1 aims to provide a disk array device that averages the life of HDDs, improves reliability, and reduces the number of HDD replacements, and manages the energization time of a plurality of HDDs. Rotating a long HDD to a hot spare disk is disclosed.

  Patent Document 2 aims at extending the life of a disk by a simple method and realizing a time-lag backup of data, and each time a shift waiting time is detected, a disk to be put on standby and a disk to which data is written are disclosed. It is disclosed to shift cyclically one by one.

  In the techniques disclosed in Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2, a plurality of disk devices are prepared, but only one disk device is used. In a system for recording and reproducing image data including sound, since the amount of data handled is large and high speed, it has been proposed to divide the data and simultaneously write and reproduce the data on a plurality of disk devices.

There is a technique disclosed in Patent Document 3 (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-128891) for controlling writing of the divided data into the disk-type recording / reproducing apparatus. Patent Document 3 discloses that in a disk device, the inner peripheral side has a high density and the outer peripheral side has a low density, and when the recording frequency is changed according to the recording density, the amount of data recorded / reproduced at a certain time depending on the recording / reproduction position. The problem is that recording and playback are performed on the front and back surfaces of the disk, the total amount of the radial positions of the head positions on the front and back surfaces is kept constant, and the recording data is set according to the radial position of the head positions on the front and back surfaces. Is divided.
JP 2000-293315 A JP-A-2005-250644 JP-A-9-128891

  The techniques disclosed in Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2 use one disk device among a plurality of disk devices, and are not suitable for high-speed writing and reproduction of a large amount of data.

  In the technique disclosed in Patent Document 3, recording and reproduction are performed with a substantially constant data amount regardless of the recording position. However, it is very difficult to write and play back simultaneously on the front and back surfaces of the disc. When the same operation is performed on a plurality of disk devices, it is necessary to prepare a disk device having the same performance, and there are many restrictions in configuring the recording / reproducing system. A general-purpose disk device is easy to procure and is advantageous in cost, but it has the flexibility to be inserted and removed by the user, so it cannot be guaranteed that a disk device with the same performance can be continuously mounted.

  When constructing a system that improves the capacity of the entire disk device by exchanging a part of multiple disk devices, there will be variations in the capacity and performance of each disk, especially with regard to the capacity. Therefore, the technique disclosed in Patent Document 3 cannot be applied.

  The present invention has been made in view of the problems of the conventional techniques as described above, and is a disk device capable of efficiently performing data division into a plurality of data and writing / reproducing data on a plurality of disk devices. An object is to realize a writing control method and a disk writing apparatus.

The disk device write control method of the present invention is a disk device write control method performed by a device using two detachable disk devices as media for recording data,
Detecting the capacity and write performance of the two disk devices in a connected state;
Checking whether both the capacity difference and write performance difference between the two disk devices are within a predetermined range;
When the capacity difference and the writing performance difference between the two disk devices are both within a predetermined range, when one disk device writes from the outer periphery toward the inner periphery, the other disk device step of writing to control so as to perform writing toward the outer periphery, the data by dividing the in accordance with the ratio between the writing performance of the two disk devices mutual writing position in each of the two disk devices from It is characterized by having.

  In this case, if it is confirmed that at least one of the capacity difference and the writing performance difference between the two disk devices is not within a predetermined range, the two currently connected data disk devices are used together. It is good also as displaying that it cannot do.

The disc writing device of the present invention is a disc writing device having two detachable disc devices as media for recording data,
The capacity and write performance of the two disk devices in the connected state are detected, and it is confirmed whether both the capacity difference and the write performance difference between the two disk devices are within a predetermined range. When the capacity difference and writing performance difference of both disk devices are within the predetermined range, when one disk device writes from the outer periphery to the inner periphery, the other disk device moves from the inner periphery to the outer periphery. And a controller that divides the data according to a ratio of the writing performance at the writing position between the two disk devices and writes the divided data to each of the two disk devices. It is characterized by that.

In this case, a disk device insertion / removal monitoring mechanism for monitoring the insertion / removal state of the two disk devices is provided,
The control unit may detect a replacement state of the disk device via the disk device insertion / extraction monitoring mechanism.

A storage device for a system for storing the capacity and write performance of the two connected disk devices;
When the control unit detects that only one disk device has been replaced, it detects the capacity and write performance of only the replaced disk device, and regarding the capacity and write performance of the disk device that has not been replaced, It is also possible to read from the system storage device and perform a subsequent confirmation operation, and update the stored contents of the system storage device based on the detected capacity and write performance of the replaced disk device.

  In addition, the control unit may measure the writing performance at the outermost and innermost circumferences of the disk device, determine the writing performance at the writing position by an approximate expression obtained from the measurement result, and divide the data. .

It also has a display,
When it is confirmed that at least one of the capacity difference and the write performance difference between the two disk devices is not within a predetermined range, the control unit determines that the two currently connected data disk devices It is good also as making the said display part display that it cannot use together.

  In the present invention, since the data is divided and written according to the ratio of the writing performance, the writing speed can be improved.

  When two different types of disk devices are used together as a recording medium, if the same amount of data is written at the same time, the capacity difference between the two disk devices becomes an area that is not used, but the above data division is performed. In some cases, the area not used corresponds to the capacity difference and the performance difference.

  In the present invention, since the recording is not performed when the capacity difference and the performance difference between the two disk devices for recording data are not within a predetermined range, the wasted area is set to a predetermined value or less. be able to.

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

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of a disk writing apparatus 200 according to the present invention.

  In this embodiment, two HDDs are used as data storage HDDs. FIG. 1 shows the Internet 100, a disk writing device 200 according to the present invention, and data HDDs (hard disks) 300 and 400. .

  The disk writing device 200 includes a general computer system configuration including a storage unit, a control unit, an input unit, and an output unit. The input unit 201 receives a key input and a mouse input from a user, and a display display. In this embodiment, the data input unit controls the operation of each unit of the disk writing device 200. The display unit 202 includes a lamp and a lamp. A control circuit 204 for performing storage, a storage unit 205 for storing a write / playback data storage and a control program 206 for controlling the HDD, a system HDD 207 for storing a program for starting the system at power-on, and an HDD (for data in this embodiment) HDD300, 400) The properties of the fine-connected HDD measured, and a HDD insertion monitoring mechanism 208 to perform a write reproduction operation of each HDD under the control of the control circuit 204.

  The control circuit 204 performs a control operation based on the HDD control program 206. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation from power-on to system activation according to this embodiment, and FIG. 3 is a diagram showing contents stored in the system HDD 207.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the system HDD 207 includes an OS, an application program, and an HDD control program, together with a capacity, a capacity, and a capacity for each of two HDDs (here, the data HDDs 300 and 400 in FIG. 1 are HDD1 and HDD2). A performance value indicating a write rate is stored, and further, a capacity required for the data HDD and a minimum level of the performance value are stored.

  Next, the operation of the present embodiment will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

  When the power is turned on, the control circuit 204 confirms whether the data HDD has been replaced via the HDD insertion / removal monitoring mechanism 208 (step S201). It detects whether the HDD has been replaced. As a method for detecting the replacement of the HDD, a mechanism for detecting insertion / removal may be provided in the HDD mounting section, or the product name and serial number possessed by each HDD are read through the HDD control program. You may detect by comparing with the thing.

  If it is confirmed in step S201 that the data HDD has not been replaced, the system is activated based on the current stored contents of the system HDD 207.

  If it is confirmed in step S201 that the data HDD has been replaced, it is confirmed whether the replaced HDD is one or two (step S202). The capacity and performance values of the replaced HDD are measured. If two HDDs are used, the capacity and performance values of both HDDs are measured.

  If it is confirmed in step S202 that the replaced HDD is one, the capacity of the replaced HDD is confirmed (step S203), and the capacity of the HDD not replaced is stored in the system HDD 207. (Step S204).

  Next, it is confirmed whether or not the capacity of the replaced data HDD is equal to or lower than the minimum level required for the data HDD stored in the system HDD 207 (step S205).

  If it is confirmed in step S205 that the capacity of the replaced data HDD is less than or equal to the minimum level required for the data HDD stored in the system HDD 207, the currently connected data HDD is connected. The display unit 202 displays an alert indicating that the two data HDDs cannot be used together. If it is confirmed that the capacity of the replaced data HDD is not less than the minimum level required for the data HDD stored in the system HDD 207, the two connected data It is confirmed whether the capacity difference between the HDDs is 10% or more (step S206).

  If it is confirmed in step S206 that the capacity difference between the two connected data HDDs is 10% or more, the two currently connected data HDDs cannot be used together. Is displayed on the display unit 202. When it is confirmed that the capacity difference between the two connected data HDDs is not 10% or more, the performance of the replaced data HDD is measured (step S207), and the HDDs that have not been replaced are measured. The performance value is confirmed from the stored contents of the system HDD 207 (step S208).

  Next, it is confirmed whether or not the performance of the replaced data HDD is equal to or less than the minimum level required for the data HDD stored in the system HDD 207 (step S209).

  If it is confirmed in step S209 that the performance of the replaced data HDD is equal to or lower than the minimum level of the performance value required for the data HDD stored in the system HDD 207, the currently connected data HDD is connected. The display unit 202 displays an alert indicating that the two data HDDs cannot be used together. If it is confirmed that the performance of the replaced data HDD is not less than the minimum level of the performance value required for the data HDD stored in the system HDD 207, the two connected HDDs The performance of the data HDD is compared (step S210).

  Next, as a result of the performance comparison in step S210, it is confirmed whether the performance difference between the two connected data HDDs is 10% or more (step S211).

  When it is confirmed in step S211 that the performance difference between the two connected data HDDs is 10% or more, the two currently connected data HDDs cannot be used together. Is displayed on the display unit 202. When it is confirmed that the performance difference between the two connected data HDDs is not 10% or more, the write ratio of each data HDD is determined according to the performance (step S212) and replaced. The capacity and performance of the data HDD are written into the system HDD 207 (step S213), and the system HDD 207 is activated.

  If it is confirmed in step S202 that two HDDs have been replaced, the capacity of the two replaced HDDs is confirmed (step S214), and the capacity of the two replaced data HDDs is confirmed. Is less than or equal to the minimum level required for the data HDD stored in the system HDD 207 (step S215).

  If it is confirmed in step S215 that the capacity of the two replaced data HDDs is less than or equal to the minimum level required for the data HDD stored in the system HDD 207, The display unit 202 is caused to display an alert indicating that the two connected data HDDs cannot be used together. If it is confirmed that the capacity of the two replaced data HDDs is not less than or equal to the minimum capacity required for the data HDD stored in the system HDD 207, the two replaced data HDDs It is confirmed whether the capacity difference of the data HDD is 10% or more (step S216).

  If it is confirmed in step S216 that the capacity difference between the two replaced data HDDs is 10% or more, the two currently connected data HDDs cannot be used together. The display unit 202 is caused to display an alert. When it is confirmed that the capacity difference between the two replaced data HDDs is not 10% or more, the performance measurement of the two replaced data HDDs is performed (step S217).

  Next, it is confirmed whether the performance of the two replaced data HDDs is equal to or lower than the minimum level required for the data HDD stored in the system HDD 207 (step S218).

  If it is confirmed in step S218 that the performance of the two replaced data HDDs is equal to or lower than the minimum level required for the data HDD stored in the system HDD 207, The display unit 202 displays an alert indicating that the two data HDDs currently connected cannot be used together. If it is confirmed that the performance of the two replaced data HDDs is not less than the minimum level required for the data HDD stored in the system HDD 207, the process proceeds to step S210. Then, the operations in steps S210 to S213 are repeated.

  Next, the HDD performance measurement performed in steps S207 and S217 and the determination of the write ratio of each data HDD performed in step S212 will be described.

  In general, the writing performance of the HDD has the best performance at the outer periphery, and the performance tends to decrease as it goes to the inner periphery. This is because the HDD is divided into concentric cylinders and data is recorded in the cylinders with substantially the same linear density. The cylinder is divided into units called sectors. In general, HDD sector management is performed using serial numbers called LBA numbers. The LBA is basically assigned in order from the outer peripheral sector, and the performance is better as writing to an area with a smaller LBA, and the performance decreases as the LBA becomes larger. Actually, when the HDD performance is measured, the characteristics shown in FIG. 4 are obtained.

  In steps S207 and S217, the writing speeds on the outermost circumference (highest performance) and innermost circumference (lowest performance) of the HDD are measured.

  As a result of the actual measurement, it is assumed that A Mbps is obtained as the writing speed at the outermost periphery, and B Mbps is obtained as the writing speed at the innermost periphery.

  At this time, the radius of the disk is x, and approximation by a linear expression is performed as follows.

y = αx + β
α = (BA) / LBA (LBA is the number of HDD LBAs)
β = A
Moreover, the following is mentioned as approximation by a quadratic equation.

  Since HDDs are recorded concentrically with an almost uniform linear density, the continuous performance from the outermost circumference to the inner circumference can be expressed by the following approximate expression.

Y = αx ² + β
α = (B−A) / LBA ²
β = A
FIG. 5 shows an approximation result by the primary expression, and FIG. 6 shows an approximation result by the quadratic expression.

  With these approximate equations, the HDD transfer performance at each LBA value can be obtained. Utilizing this fact, the writing ratio to each HDD is changed to enable more efficient writing.

  The algorithm for determining the write ratio of each data HDD performed in step S212 is as follows.

  (1) Of the two connected data HDDs, one performs writing from the outer periphery of the writing area and the other from the inner periphery of the writing area. At this time, writing is performed at the highest writing rate by setting the data HDD having a high writing rate to be written from the outer periphery of the writing area, and such setting may be used.

  (2) The performance of the HDD at the above write position is calculated. For the calculation, the above approximate expression 1 or approximate expression 2 is used. As a result, the performance of the HDD 1 is a, and the performance of the HDD 2 is b.

  (3) The ratio of writing to each HDD is determined by the following from the performance ratio.

HDD1 write amount = a / (a + b) · total write amount HDD2 write amount = b / (a + b) · total write amount The total write amount here is the image data per unit time accepted by the network board 203 shown in FIG. The control circuit 204 divides the image data in accordance with the determined write ratio, and writes it to each data HDD.

  As described above, when the HDD that performs writing from the outer periphery to the inner periphery and the HDD that performs writing from the inner periphery to the outer periphery are used in combination, the characteristics illustrated in FIG. 7A and the characteristics illustrated in FIG. Will be combined. These are characteristics when the writing direction of the HDD is changed, and the writing rate is 300 Mbps at the outer peripheral portion and the writing rate is 180 Mbps at the inner peripheral portion. By using these in combination, as shown in FIG. 7C, it is possible to always perform a writing rate at 380 Mbps or higher.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of one Example of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement of the Example of this invention. It is a figure which shows the storage content of system HDD207 in FIG. It is a figure which shows the characteristic by measurement of HDD performance. It is a figure which shows the approximation result by the primary expression of the characteristic shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows the approximation result by the quadratic expression of the characteristic shown in FIG. (A)-(c) is a figure for demonstrating the write rate by this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 Internet 200 Disk writing apparatus 201 Input part 202 Display part 203 Network board 204 Control circuit 205 Storage part 206 HDD control program 207 System HDD
208 HDD insertion / extraction monitoring mechanism 300,400 Data HDD

Claims (7)

A disk device writing control method performed by a device that uses two detachable disk devices as media for recording data,
Detecting the capacity and write performance of the two disk devices in a connected state;
Checking whether both the capacity difference and write performance difference between the two disk devices are within a predetermined range;
When the capacity difference and the writing performance difference between the two disk devices are both within a predetermined range, when one disk device writes from the outer periphery toward the inner periphery, the other disk device step of writing to control so as to perform writing toward the outer periphery, the data by dividing the in accordance with the ratio between the writing performance of the two disk devices mutual writing position in each of the two disk devices from A write control method for a disk device, comprising: The write control method for a disk device according to claim 1,
If it is confirmed that at least one of the capacity difference and the write performance difference between the two disk devices is not within a predetermined range, the two currently connected data disk devices can be used together. A writing control method for a disk device, characterized in that a message indicating that the recording is impossible is displayed. A disk writing device using two detachable disk devices as a data recording medium,
The capacity and write performance of the two disk devices in the connected state are detected, and it is confirmed whether both the capacity difference and the write performance difference between the two disk devices are within a predetermined range. When the capacity difference and writing performance difference of both disk devices are within the predetermined range, when one disk device writes from the outer periphery to the inner periphery, the other disk device moves from the inner periphery to the outer periphery. And a controller that divides the data according to a ratio of the writing performance at the writing position between the two disk devices and writes the divided data to each of the two disk devices. A disc writing apparatus. The disc writing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein
A disk device insertion / removal monitoring mechanism for monitoring the insertion / removal state of the two disk devices;
The disk writing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control unit detects a replacement state of the disk device via the disk device insertion / extraction monitoring mechanism. The disc writing apparatus according to claim 3 or 4,
A system storage device for storing the capacity and write performance of the two connected disk devices;
When the control unit detects that only one disk device has been replaced, it detects the capacity and write performance of only the replaced disk device, and regarding the capacity and write performance of the disk device that has not been replaced, A disk write comprising: reading from the system storage device, performing a subsequent confirmation operation, and updating a storage content of the system storage device based on a detected capacity and write performance of the replaced disk device apparatus. The disc writing apparatus according to any one of claims 3 to 5,
The control unit measures the writing performance at the outermost circumference and the innermost circumference of the disk device, and obtains the writing performance at the writing position by an approximate expression obtained from the measurement result, and divides the data. Writing device. The disc writing apparatus according to any one of claims 3 to 6,
With a display,
When it is confirmed that at least one of the capacity difference and the write performance difference between the two disk devices is not within a predetermined range, the control unit determines that the two currently connected data disk devices A disk writing apparatus characterized by causing the display unit to display that it cannot be used together.

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