JPH05205411A - Substitution processing method for information recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To use a user data sector area up to its maximum by effectively using an alternate sector area of an information recording medium. CONSTITUTION:Data is written in an sector which has bean subjected to substitution processing once, and read check is performed. When it is judged that this sector can be restored, the alternate sector is released, and the essential substitution processing is cancelled, thereby reserving the alternate sector area. Discontinuous data which causes the latency by insertion of the substitution processing is made continuous to increase the practical data transfer rate.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an alternative process for an information recording medium such as an optical disk.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, the memory capacity of computers has increased, and optical discs have attracted attention because they can record and reproduce large amounts of data.

However, since the recording pits and track pitch of an optical disk are as small as about 1 μm, when dust or scratches are present, a dropout is generated in the reproduced signal, but the raw error rate of the medium itself is extremely low. However, since there are many long burst-shaped dropouts, the data may not be reproduced. Further, if there is dust or dirt on the lens of the semiconductor laser, the quality of the reproduced signal is deteriorated, and the reproduction of data may be impossible.

There are concentric or spiral tracks on the optical disc, and the disc is composed of a plurality of sectors. The sector is composed of an address part in which the address of the sector is recorded in advance on the disc and a data part for recording data.

The alternative process is a process of transferring or rewriting the data to another sector, that is, an alternative sector, when the data is not correctly recorded in the sector or when the sector of the target address is not found.

The conventional alternative processing of the optical disc will be described below. FIG. 2 shows an example of a conventional optical disc replacement process. When recording the data sent from the host computer to the target sector, in order to check whether it is recorded correctly immediately after recording, stricter conditions than in normal reproduction, for example, stricter clipping level of reproduction signal Or a method of limiting the number of errors (hereinafter referred to as “verify”) is adopted, and when these conditions are satisfied, it is determined that the data is correctly recorded. However, if any one of these conditions is not satisfied, the sector is determined to be a bad sector and is recorded in the alternative sector. The physical address of the sector to be replaced and the physical address of the alternative sector are recorded in the system area. Therefore, when reproducing the file data continuously, a sequence of reading sector 1 of the user data track, sector 2 of the alternative sector track, and then reading sector 4 of the user data track is performed. It will be.

The alternative processing includes one that is performed when the disk is logically formatted and one that is performed during the subsequent recording / reproduction. In the former case, the logical addresses are sequentially allocated to the sectors in the user area so that the sectors that have undergone the alternative process are ignored. On the other hand, in the latter case, the logical address assigned to the replaced sector is given to the alternative sector, and it is apparent that the addresses are continuous.

[0008]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional configuration, since the semiconductor laser lens or the optical disk has dirt or dust, it is determined that a specific sector is defective, and the semiconductor laser lens or the optical disk is dirty. Despite the possibility that the sector to be replaced may return after cleaning the dust, once the sector is subjected to the replacement process, the sector to be replaced is never used again.

[0009]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, in the alternative processing of the present invention, data is written to the replacement target sector for the sector once subjected to the replacement processing, and read-out check is performed. When it is determined that the sector can be restored, the substitute sector is restored, the substitute sector is released, and the original substitute process is canceled to secure the substitute sector area. In addition, discontinuous data such as rotation waiting due to the introduction of the alternative process becomes continuous, and the actual data transfer rate can be increased.

[0010]

With this configuration, the sector area for the substitution process can be secured by deleting the unnecessary unnecessary substitution sector, and the data can be continuously transferred and the transfer rate can be increased. ..

[0011]

【Example】

(Embodiment 1) A first embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

Normal alternative processing is performed as described above. However, the configuration is such that the replacement sector is reviewed again according to an instruction from the host computer or the like. The operation will be described below with reference to FIG.

FIG. 1a. The addresses of the replacement target sector and the replacement sector are recognized from the map of the replacement sector in the system area shown in FIG. The address of the map is a physical address, but normally the logical address is used in communication with the host computer, so the sector to be replaced cannot be accessed directly.
The optical disk is therefore accessed by the physical address of the replaced sector. A certain data pattern or data in the alternative sector A is read in advance for the replacement target sector A, the data is recorded, and the verify operation is performed. In this case, the verify condition is the same as or more stringent than usual. If the verification fails again, the next sector to be replaced B is repeated and C, D and E are repeated. On the other hand, if it is determined that the data can be reproduced by the verify operation check, in the former data check, the data of the alternative sector A is recorded in the alternative sector and the verify operation is checked again, and if the data match, , The registration of the map of the alternative sector is deleted, and the logical address is returned to the replaced sector again. Hereinafter, for the same purpose, B of the replaced sector,
Do the same for C, D and E.

As described above, with respect to the sector once subjected to the replacement processing, the data is written in the replacement target sector, and the read check is further performed. When it is judged that the sector can be restored, the replacement target sector is restored. Then, the alternative sector is released and the original alternative process is canceled to secure the alternative sector area. Due to this, the problem that the number of alternative sectors increases sequentially due to the surface dirt of the disk or device used for a long time, and the recovery operation of the alternative sector is performed after the cleaning of the objective lens of the disk or device. It can be separated from the essential alternative processing such as recording film defect, and unnecessary consumption of alternative sectors can be suppressed. These recovery operations may take a very long time depending on the used amount of the disk, but the processing of the present invention may be executed for a long time by issuing a special instruction from the host computer at the time of maintenance of the apparatus. Therefore, it does not substantially affect the information recording / reproducing operation.

In addition, if the amount of use of the alternative sector area exceeds a certain limit, or if the ratio of the amount of use of the user data sector area to the amount of use of the alternative sector area exceeds a certain amount, an extremely effective disc is implemented. It can be used as a means for restoring. This is because the alternative sector area of a disk is originally determined from the error rate of the disk itself, and the alternative sector usage amount or the ratio of the user data sector area usage amount to the alternative sector area usage amount is It indicates that the performance is lower than the performance, and a warning of cleaning or maintenance of the device or the disk is issued as a system by a buzzer or LED blinking, a warning text on the CRT, etc., and the alternative sector restoration process of the present invention is executed. As a result, unnecessary disk consumption can be minimized.

Further, if a special system dedicated to the implementation of the present invention is prepared, it becomes a very effective disk restoring means for a user who uses many disks. According to the restoring means of the present invention, there is an effect that both the required time and the required number of disks may be smaller than those of the conventional restoring means which is a combination of copying all data and erasing all data of the disk. .. The disk capacity is limited when either the user data sector area or the alternative sector area is full, so actual data is recorded when the usage of the alternative sector increases due to dirt on the disk surface. Even when the user data sector area is sufficiently left, the alternative sector restoration process of the present invention is extremely effective when the disk usage limit is reached. In addition, the optical disc is portable, is frequently attached to and detached from the device, has a large capacity, and is used for a long time.
It is also a great effect as a means for solving the weak point that both the disk and the device are easily affected by dirt and dust.

Further, since the number of times of handling discontinuous sectors is reduced by the substitution processing, discontinuous data processing such as rotation waiting, access to another area, and reproduction can be substantially partially continuous processing. The data transfer rate can be increased.

Although the operation has been described using the optical disk in the embodiment, it is not limited to this, and it is obvious that the invention can be applied to an optical card, a tape, a magnetic recording apparatus having the same function, and the like. ..

[0019]

As described above, in the alternative processing method of the present invention, it is determined that the sector can be restored by writing data to the sector to be replaced and then reading the data from the sector which has been once replaced. In this case, the replacement sector is restored, the replacement sector is released, and the original replacement process is canceled to secure the replacement sector area. As a result, the disk usage limit is approached to the user data sector area limit instead of the alternative sector area limit so that the substantial capacity can be utilized to the maximum, and the time for using one disk having a large capacity is increased. It is an extremely effective means for an extremely long optical disk. In addition, discontinuous data processing such as rotation waiting due to the introduction of alternative processing becomes continuous, and the substantial data transfer rate can be increased.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram of an alternative processing method according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a conventional alternative processing method for an optical disc.

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. An information recording medium having a guide track and composed of a plurality of sectors and divided into a user data sector area, an alternative sector area and a system area, with respect to a replaced sector which has been once replaced. Data is written, read is checked, and if it is determined that the sector can be restored, the sector to be replaced is restored, the alternative sector is canceled, and the original replacement process is canceled.
An alternative processing method for an information recording medium, characterized by ensuring an alternative sector area. 2. The alternative processing method for an information recording medium according to claim 1, wherein a verify condition when writing data in the alternative sector, reading the data, and checking the data is made stricter than usual. 3. When the apparatus and the recording medium are cleaned, the data is written to the replacement target sector which has once been subjected to the replacement process, the read-out check is performed, and if it is determined that the sector can be restored, the replacement target By restoring the sector, canceling the alternative sector and canceling the original alternative process,
An alternative processing method for an information recording medium, characterized by ensuring an alternative sector area. 4. When the amount of use of the alternative sector area exceeds a certain amount, data is written to the replaced sector which has once been subjected to the alternative process, and read-out is checked, and it is determined that the sector can be restored. In this case, the alternative processing method for the information recording medium is characterized in that the alternative sector area is secured by restoring the replaced sector, canceling the alternative sector, and canceling the original alternative processing. 5. When the ratio of the usage amounts of the user data sector area and the alternative sector area exceeds a certain amount, the data is written to the alternative sector which has been once subjected to the alternative processing, and the reading is further checked. If it is determined that the sector can be restored, the alternative sector is restored, the alternative sector is released, and the original alternative process is canceled to secure the alternative sector area. Method. 6. When the ratio of the amount of use of the user data sector area to the amount of use of the alternative sector area exceeds a certain amount, a warning for cleaning the apparatus and the medium is issued, and the replaced sector once the alternative processing has been performed. If it is determined that the sector can be restored after writing the data and then reading the data, the sector to be replaced is restored, the alternative sector is released, and the original alternative process is canceled to secure the alternative sector area. An alternative processing method for an information recording medium characterized by the above.