JPH0252832B2 - - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention [Technical Field of the Invention] A magnetic disk device of the present invention records data on the recording medium and reads the data to check the normality of the recording medium. The inspection method is particularly concerned with magnetic disk media with high recording density by counting the number of bytes of data corresponding to a track recording format compatible with magnetic disk media with low recording density and generating a pseudo index signal indicating the end of data. The present invention relates to a method for inspecting a magnetic disk medium in a magnetic disk device that records data on a disk.

[Technology background]

In a magnetic disk device, a large amount of binary data is magnetically recorded in a record format on a magnetic disk medium, but if there is a defect on this medium,
Data cannot be recorded in that portion, errors occur in the data, and the reliability of the data decreases.

Therefore, it is necessary to accurately determine the location of defects on such media.

In a general magnetic disk drive, the magnetic disk medium surface is made up of multiple tracks, each track has an index mark, and the magnetic disk drive stores data on each track using this index mark as a starting point. It is configured to read data from each track.

Typical programs for reading and writing such data are designed for media having a predetermined track capacity.

However, when a medium with a larger track capacity appears, it is not a good idea to create a new program to read from and write to this medium, as it requires a huge amount of man-hours.

Conventionally, therefore, the track capacity has been converted on the apparatus side so that programs developed for media with a small track capacity can be applied to read and write media with a large track capacity.

This state will be explained using FIG.

Figure 1a shows the state of the data format when the rotation time is constant and data is recorded by a normal program on a medium with a low recording density, that is, a small track capacity, and Figure 2b shows the state of the data format when the rotation time is constant. This figure shows the state of the data format when the same data as in FIG. 1a is recorded by emulation using a normal program on a medium with a high track capacity, that is, a medium with a large track capacity.

In this way, if the same data shown in Figure 1a is recorded on a medium with a higher recording density, the data format will be compressed in distance by the higher recording density, as shown in Figure 1b, and the data will be compressed in distance by the higher recording density, resulting in a data format with a lower recording density. A pseudo index signal indicating the end of data is generated by counting the number of bytes of data corresponding to the track recording format compatible with the magnetic disk medium.

Note that the length of the gap G is determined by the control time of the input/output control device (10C), so the times in Figures 1a and 1b need to be equal regardless of the recording density. There is.

That is, the higher the recording density, the larger the number of gap bytes needs to be.

As described above, track emission has conventionally been performed in order to enable the use of conventional programs when the recording density of recording media has improved.

[Prior art and its problems]

Next, a conventional testing method for magnetic disk media will be explained with reference to FIG.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram for explaining a conventional test method.

When the format generating circuit 2 is activated by the sequence generating circuit 1, the format generating circuit 2 writes a format as shown in FIG. 1 onto the medium of the magnetic disk device 3.

Next, the judgment circuit 4 reads the data recorded on the medium, checks the read data to check the normality of the medium, and sends the result to the sequence generation circuit 1, which then starts the next track. The following sequence is generated to perform the test.

In this way, magnetic disk media have been tested by sequentially testing each track.

However, in this conventional method, when performing track emulation as described above, when continuous data is recorded on a magnetic disk medium with a low recording density, as shown in FIG. A pseudo index signal is generated in the middle of a track in order to count the number of bytes of data corresponding to the track recording format corresponding to the track recording format and generate a pseudo index signal indicating the end of the data.

Therefore, in the conventional testing method, the surface of the medium in the area beyond this pseudo index signal generation point (pseudo index mark) cannot be analyzed.

However, depending on the data writing method, the point at which this pseudo index signal is generated changes.

In other words, when one record is short and multiple records are recorded on one track, a gap is required between the records, and even if the total amount of data is the same as in Figure 1b, the gap increases This is because the pseudo index generation point will be shifted to the rear of the track.

Therefore, in the test for writing and reading data shown in FIG. 1B, there was a problem in that not all defects on the medium could be discovered.

The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems and provides a magnetic disk medium testing method that enables accurate testing of magnetic disk media even in magnetic disk devices that perform track emulation. The purpose is to

[Means for solving problems]

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention counts the number of bytes of data corresponding to a track recording format compatible with a magnetic disk medium with a low recording density and generates a pseudo index signal indicating the end of data. A method for inspecting a magnetic disk medium in a magnetic disk device that records data on a magnetic disk medium with a high recording density, which inspects the medium until a pseudo index signal is generated by first recording one record. Then, by recording a plurality of small records in the record portion, records can be recorded in an area beyond the pseudo index signal generation position, and the medium is inspected by recording data in the area; First, by recording multiple small records in the area that has been inspected, records can be recorded in the area after that, and the medium is inspected by recording data in this area, and then the track can be checked by repeating this operation. This is achieved by a method for inspecting a magnetic disk medium in a magnetic disk device, which is characterized in that all inspections are performed.

〔Example〕

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a test apparatus for carrying out the test method of the present invention, and FIG. 4 shows a data recording method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In the test device of the present invention, the sequence generation circuit 1
First, the format generating circuit 2-1 is activated by the decoder 1-1 in the magnetic disk drive 3, and the format generating circuit 2-1 records on the medium of the magnetic disk device 3 in the format shown in FIG. When the signal is sent to the sequence generation circuit 1, the determination circuit 4-1 is activated.

The determination circuit 4-1 determines the data R recorded on the medium.
0 and R1, and check the normality of the continued data.

At this stage, as mentioned above, the number of bytes of data corresponding to the track recording format compatible with low recording density magnetic disk media is counted and a pseudo index signal indicating the end of the data is generated. No surface analysis of the media was performed.

Then, the format generation circuit 2-1 is activated by the decoder 1-1 to generate the format shown in FIG. 4 and record it on the medium.

That is, in FIG. 4, a plurality of small pieces of data R1 to R1 are recorded in one piece of data R1.

If this is done, a gap will always be required between each small piece of data, so the actual number of data recording bytes up to the pseudo index signal generation point in Figure 4 1 will be larger in Figure 4 2 than in Figure 4 1. becomes smaller.

In other words, in order to obtain the same number of data recording bytes as in FIG. 41 in FIG. 4, a pseudo index signal is generated at the point where R1+1 is further written.

By writing the format shown in FIG. 42, it becomes possible to perform surface analysis on an area that is even more expanded than that shown in FIG. 41.

Next, start up the format generation circuit 2-3,
By writing small data to the data R1+1 portion in FIG. 4, the pseudo index signal generation point can be moved to the point where data Rm+1 is written, as shown in FIG. 4.

Therefore, it is possible to perform surface analysis over a further expanded area compared to FIG. 42.

Similarly, the decoder 1-1 activates the format generation circuit 2-4 and writes the format shown in FIG. 4 onto the medium, thereby making it possible to perform surface analysis of the entire track.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, in devices that read and write high-density media by emulating the programs of conventionally developed magnetic disk devices, by adopting the test method described above, it is possible to test the entire magnetic disk medium. Summer.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram explaining the data format on a magnetic disk recording medium, FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a conventional test device, and FIG. 3 is an explanation of an embodiment of a test device for carrying out the test method of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a data recording state according to an embodiment of the present invention. Furthermore, in the figure, 1 is a sequence generation circuit;
2 is a format generation circuit, 3 is a magnetic disk device, 4 is a determination circuit, and 1-1 is a decoder.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A magnetic disk with a high recording density by counting the number of bytes of data corresponding to a track recording format compatible with a magnetic disk medium with a low recording density and generating a pseudo index signal indicating the end of data. A method of inspecting a magnetic disk medium in a magnetic disk device that records data on the medium, in which the medium is first inspected until a pseudo index signal is generated by recording one record, and then the medium is inspected until a pseudo index signal is generated. By recording a plurality of small records in the record portion, records can be recorded in an area beyond the pseudo index signal generation position, and the medium is inspected by recording data in the area, and furthermore, the medium is inspected by recording data in the area beyond the pseudo index signal generation position. By recording multiple small records in the area, records can be recorded in the area beyond that area, and the medium is inspected by recording data in this area, and the entire track is inspected by repeating this operation. A method for inspecting a magnetic disk medium in a magnetic disk device, characterized by: