JPH05314673A - Fault deciding device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To predict the fault decision of a part concerned before the specific part of a specific storage reproducing device becomes unuseable. CONSTITUTION:An input/output processing part 4 executes the processing of the input/output of information between its processing part and a data storage part 23 and also detects a fault state in the input/output processing. On a flexible disk 22, an integrating error frequency storage part 6 is provided and the number of times of generation of a fault generated at every sector of the data storage part 23 is integrated and stored at every sector. An integrating error frequency comparing part 8 executes a fault decision, in the case the number of times of generation of an integrating error exceeds the allowable number of times of generation of an error set in advance.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a failure judgment device for a storage / reproduction device, and more particularly to a failure prediction thereof.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional failure determination device, when data reading or writing with a storage / reproducing device fails, the failure determination is performed as follows.

First, the case where writing fails will be described. If the writing of data with the storage / playback device fails, the failure determination device recognizes that a temporary error has occurred. When a temporary error occurs, the failure determination device
A command is issued to the memory reproducing device to repeat the same operation.

The storage / reproduction device receives the command from the failure determination device and repeats the write operation. If the writing can be performed before the writing operation is repeated a predetermined number of times, the failure determination device determines that the final error has not occurred, and ends the writing operation.

On the other hand, if the writing operation is not repeated even after the writing operation is repeated a predetermined number of times, the failure judging device judges that a final error has occurred and terminates the writing operation. Furthermore, a message indicating that a failure has occurred is issued, the area is set as an unused area,
The write operation is performed again in another area.

The same is true when a temporary error occurs during reading. That is, when the reading of data from the storage / reproduction device fails, the failure determination device recognizes that a temporary error has occurred and issues a command to the storage / reproduction device to repeat the same operation.

In response to this command, the storage / reproducing apparatus repeats the read operation. If the reading can be performed before repeating the predetermined number of times, the failure determination device determines that the final error has not occurred, and ends the read operation.

On the other hand, if the read operation cannot be performed even after repeating the read operation a predetermined number of times, the failure determination device determines that a final error has occurred, and terminates the read operation. Further, a message indicating that a failure has occurred is displayed.

[0009]

However, the above-described failure determination device has the following problems. Even if a temporary error occurs. If the read or write is possible before the read or write operation is repeated a predetermined number of times, the failure determination device determines that the final error has not occurred.

That is, it is recognized that the final error occurs only when writing or reading cannot be performed in a specific portion of the storage / reproducing apparatus. If such a state occurs at the time of reading, the data written in the area is wasted. Further, the data related to the data written in the area may be wasted. Further, if it occurs at the time of writing, it may be possible to write the data after repeating it several times, but eventually it may not be possible to read the data.

The present invention solves the above problems and provides a failure determination device capable of predicting the failure determination of a specific storage / reproducing device before it becomes unusable. With the goal.

[0012]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a failure determination device, comprising: an integrated number storage section for integrating and storing the number of failure occurrences in a specific part of an information storage section of a storage / reproduction device for each specific part. The input / output processing means is provided in the storage / reproducing device or in the failure determination device, and updates the cumulative number of failures stored in the cumulative number storage section each time a failure occurs in a specific part of the information storage section, The failure determination means is characterized by making a failure determination by comparing a preset allowable failure occurrence count with the cumulative failure occurrence count.

[0013]

The cumulative number storage unit cumulatively stores the number of failure occurrences in a specific portion of the information storage unit of the storage / reproducing apparatus for each specific portion. The input / output processing means updates the cumulative failure frequency stored in the cumulative frequency storage section each time a failure occurs in a specific portion of the information storage section. The failure determination means makes a failure determination by comparing a preset allowable failure occurrence count with the cumulative failure occurrence count. Therefore,
It is possible to make a failure determination according to the cumulative number of failures that have occurred in a specific portion of a specific storage / reproduction device.

[0014]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the failure determination device according to the present invention. The failure determination device 1 includes a temporary error number storage unit 10, a temporary error number comparison unit 12, a failure processing unit 14, an input / output processing unit 4 which is an input / output processing unit, and an integrated error number comparison unit 8 which is a failure determination unit. I have it.

The input / output processing unit 4 is an interface unit with a storage / reproduction device, and in this embodiment, a flexible disk 22 is connected as the storage / reproduction device. The flexible disk 22 includes a data storage unit that is an information storage unit.
23 and the cumulative error count storage unit 6 that is the cumulative count storage unit
Is provided. The cumulative error number storage unit 6 cumulatively stores the number of failure occurrences in a specific portion of the data storage unit 23 for each specific portion. Here, the cumulative error occurrence count refers to the number of errors that have occurred in each specific portion from the start of using the specific portion to the present, and is read out,
It is added up for each writing operation.

Further, the input / output processing unit 4 includes a data storage unit 23.
Information input / output processing is performed between the input and output terminals, and a failure state in the input / output processing is detected. Further, each time a failure occurs in a specific portion of the data storage unit 23, the cumulative failure frequency stored in the cumulative error frequency storage unit 6 is updated.

The temporary error count storage unit 10 stores the number of temporary error occurrences in a specific portion of the data storage unit 23 of the flexible disk 22. Here, the number of temporary error occurrences refers to the number of error occurrences in a series of flow from the start of the input / output operation to the error end or the normal end.
In the present embodiment, one sector of the flexible disk 22 is assigned as a specific portion. Therefore, the cumulative error number storage unit 6 cumulatively stores, for each sector, the number of failure occurrences occurring in each sector of the data storage unit 23.

The temporary error count comparison unit 12 compares the number of repetitions set in advance for each sector with the number of temporary error occurrences in each sector of the flexible disk 22 for each sector, and treats the comparison result as a failure process. Part 14
To the input / output processing unit 4 via. Based on this result, the input / output processing unit 4 rewrites the data storage unit 23 of the flexible disk 22. In this example, the number of repetitions was set to 3 for both reading and writing.

The integrated error count comparison unit 8 compares the failure occurrence allowable count preset for the sector (hereinafter referred to as error occurrence allowable count) with the integrated error occurrence count of the sector. If the cumulative number of error occurrences exceeds the preset allowable number of error occurrences, failure determination is performed and the determination result is output to the failure processing unit 14.
In the present embodiment, the allowable number of error occurrences was set to 30 times both during reading and during writing.

The failure processing unit 14 includes an integrated error count comparison unit 8
In response to the determination result from, the failure processing of the corresponding sector of the flexible disk 22 is performed via the input / output processing unit 4.

[Write Control] Next, the control operation of the failure determination device 1 when writing data to the first sector of the flexible disk 22 will be described with reference to FIGS. First, the number of temporary errors in the first sector of the flexible disk 22 is cleared (step S201), and writing is started (step S202). Next, it is detected whether or not an error occurs during writing (step S203). If no error occurs, data is written in the first sector of the flexible disk 22 and the process ends normally (step S209).

When an error occurs in step S203, 1 is added to the number of temporary errors in the first sector of the flexible disk 22 (step S204). That is, the number of temporary errors in the first sector of the flexible disk 22 changes from 0 to 1.

Further, the cumulative error number of the first sector stored in the cumulative error number storage unit 6 of the flexible disk 22 is read out and 1 is added to the value (step S205). For example, if the cumulative error number is 20, the cumulative error number is 20 to 21. The added value is again stored in the cumulative error number storage unit 6.

Next, it is determined whether the cumulative error count is greater than the allowable error occurrence count (step S206). In the present embodiment, the error occurrence allowable number is 30 times,
At this stage, the total number of errors is 20 to 21. Therefore, the cumulative number of errors does not exceed the allowable number of error occurrences, and the process proceeds to step S207. In step S207, it is determined whether the number of temporary errors is greater than the number of repetitions. In this case, since the number of temporary errors is 1, the process returns to step S202, and the data is again written in the first sector.

Such a rewriting operation is repeated until the number of temporary errors exceeds the number of repetitions, and if writing can be performed during that time, in step S203, no error occurs and the process ends normally (step S209). However, if it cannot be written, the process proceeds to the failure process of step S208.
In the present embodiment, as failure processing, the information is written in a sector that is different from the first sector and in which information has not yet been written (in this case, the sector is the second sector). .. When such a failure process is performed, the process returns to step S201, the number of temporary errors in the second sector is cleared, and writing is started (step S202). Whether or not an error occurs during writing is detected (step S203). If no error occurs, data is written in the second sector of the flexible disk 22 and the process ends normally (step S20).
9).

On the other hand, in step S203, if an error occurs, the rewriting operation is repeated. If writing can be done during that time, the operation ends normally, but if writing is not possible, the failure processing is performed again (step S2).
08).

[Read Control] Next, the control operation of the failure determination device 1 when reading the data of the first sector of the flexible disk 22 will be described with reference to FIGS. First, the number of temporary errors in the first sector of the flexible disk 22 is cleared (step S301), and reading is started (step S302). Next, it is detected whether an error occurs during reading (step S303). If there is no error, it is determined whether the integration flag of the first sector of the flexible disk 22 is on (step
S311), if the integration flag is not on, the data of the first sector of the flexible disk 22 is read and the process ends normally (step S313).

If an error occurs in step S303, 1 is added to the number of temporary errors in the first sector of the flexible disk 22 (step S304). That is, the number of temporary errors in the first sector of the flexible disk 22 changes from 0 to 1.

Further, 1 is added to the cumulative error number of the first sector of the flexible disk 22 (step S305).
For example, if the cumulative error number is 20, the cumulative error number is 20 to 21. The added value is again stored in the cumulative error number storage unit 6.

Next, it is determined whether the cumulative error count is greater than the allowable error occurrence count (step S306). In the present embodiment, the allowable number of error occurrences is 30, and the cumulative number of errors is 20 to 21 at this stage. Therefore, the cumulative number of errors does not exceed the allowable number of error occurrences, and the process proceeds to step S308. In step S308, it is determined whether the number of temporary errors is greater than the number of repetitions. In this case, since the number of temporary errors is 1, the process returns to step S302 to start reading again.

Such re-reading operation is repeated until the number of temporary errors exceeds the number of repetitions, and if the data cannot be read during that time, the process proceeds to the failure processing of step S309. In the present embodiment, as the failure processing, the unreadable message is displayed. After such failure processing is performed, the process proceeds to step S310 and ends in error.

If it is determined in step S306 that the number of cumulative errors is larger than the allowable number of error occurrences, the cumulative flag of the first sector of the flexible disk 22 is turned on (step S307), and the process proceeds to step S308. In step S308, it is determined whether the number of temporary errors is greater than the number of repetitions, and the reread operation is repeated until the number of temporary errors exceeds the number of repetitions. If the data cannot be read during this time, the flow advances to step S309 to display an unreadable message and terminates in error (step S310). If the data can be read while repeating the re-reading operation, the process proceeds from step S303 to step S311. In this case, since the cumulative flag of the first sector of the flexible disk 22 is turned on in step S307, the process proceeds to step S312, and the flexible disk 22
The data of the first sector is read and the data is moved to another area (step S312). In this case, the data is written in a sector which is different from the first sector and in which information has not been written yet (third sector in this case). After such a moving process, the process normally ends (step S313).

As described above, in the present embodiment, the re-reading operation is repeated until the number of temporary errors exceeds the number of repetitions, and even if reading can be performed during this time, in step S306, the cumulative number of errors is If it is determined that the number of occurrences is greater than the allowable number of occurrences, the above-described movement processing is performed. As a result, the data written in the sector can be protected.

The failure determination may be made based on the failure rate. The failure rate is the cumulative number of error occurrences divided by the number of accesses, and the line L in FIG.
Refers to the inclination of. Even before the failure occurrence frequency reaches the predetermined value (P), if the predetermined failure occurrence rate becomes high, that is, if the slope exceeds a certain value, it is determined that there is a failure. It is possible to reliably make a failure determination.

In this embodiment, the flexible disk 22 is used as the storage / playback device, but any device that stores or plays back data may be used, for example, a hard disk, a RAM, a CD. −
It may be a ROM, an optical disk or the like.

Further, in this embodiment, each sector of the flexible disk 22 is assigned as a unit as a specific portion. However, the allocation may be set as a unit in relation to the storage capacity, and for example, several sectors may be set as a unit.

In this embodiment, the preset number of repetitions for each sector is three times, and the preset allowable number of error occurrences for the sector is
Although it is set to 30 times, it may be set based on the reading accuracy, the total capacity, etc., and may be set for each storage / playback device. Therefore, it may be stored in the flexible disk 22 or in the failure determination device 1.

Further, in this embodiment, as the failure processing at the time of writing, the information is written in the sector which is different from the first sector and in which the information has not been written yet. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and a message "Writing after changing the write target area" may be displayed. Also other processing,
For example, the message may be simply displayed without performing such processing.

Similarly, at the time of reading, even if the message can be read, if it is determined that the cumulative error count is larger than the allowable error occurrence count, the message is sent without performing the process of moving the data to another area. It may be displayed.

In the present embodiment, the flexible disk 22 is provided with the cumulative error number storage unit 6.
As a result, even when the flexible disk 22 is connected to another computer, the computer can be notified of the number of accumulated errors of the sector. On the other hand, the cumulative error number storage unit 6 is
It may be provided in the failure determination device 1 instead of in the device 22.

[0041]

According to the failure judging apparatus of the first aspect of the present invention, the accumulated number storage section for accumulating and storing the number of failure occurrences in a specific portion of the information storage section of the storage / reproduction apparatus is stored in the storage / reproduction apparatus. The input / output processing means updates the cumulative number of failures stored in the cumulative number storage section each time a failure occurs in a specific part of the information storage section, and the failure determination section preliminarily sets the failure determination section in advance. The failure determination is performed by comparing the set allowable failure occurrence frequency with the cumulative failure occurrence frequency. Therefore, before a specific portion of a specific storage / reproducing device becomes unusable, it is possible to predict failure determination of that portion.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a failure determination device 1 which is an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a write operation of the failure determination device 1.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a read operation of the failure determination device 1.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the relationship among the cumulative error occurrence count, the failure count, and the access count.

[Explanation of symbols]

 4 ... I / O processing unit 6 ... Accumulated error count storage unit 8 ... Accumulated error count comparison unit

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An input / output processing unit for inputting / outputting information to / from an information storage unit of a storage / reproducing apparatus and detecting a failure state in the input / output processing, and a detection result of the input / output processing unit. In a failure determination device having a failure determination means for performing a failure determination based on the above, an integrated number storage unit for integrating and storing the number of failure occurrences occurring in a specific portion of the information storage unit of the storage / reproduction device is stored in the storage unit. The input / output processing means is provided in the reproducing device or in the failure determination device, and the input / output processing means updates the cumulative number of failures stored in the cumulative number of times storage section each time a failure occurs in a specific portion of the information storage section, thereby performing failure determination. A failure determination device, wherein the means determines a failure by comparing a preset allowable failure occurrence frequency with the accumulated failure frequency.