JPH0574039A - Method for controlling patrol seek start for magnetic disk device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To restrain the influence of a dust elimination seek operation on a system performance by controlling the starting interval of a system operation done singly by the magnetic disk device for the purpose of eliminating accumulated minute dusts so as to automatically make it short when the frequency of using the magnetic disk device is reduced and long when the use of the device is started. CONSTITUTION:This device is constituted of a patrol seek number counting section 6 for counting the frequency of using the magnetic disk, a timer 5 for setting a dust elimination seek starting interval and a sequence control section 4 for controlling the processing of the dust elimination seek start.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a magnetic disk device, and more particularly to a patrol seek start control method for a magnetic disk device having a patrol seek function.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, in magnetic disk devices, as the recording density increases, the flying height of the magnetic head is lowered to the limit in order to improve the electromagnetic conversion characteristics, and there is an increasing tendency to increase the storage capacity. ing. Therefore, minute dust accumulated on the surface of the recording medium becomes a problem, which affects the flying characteristics of the magnetic head and causes a serious obstacle.

[0003] Conventionally, efforts have been made to reduce dust as a countermeasure, but there is a limit to removal of residual dust during assembly and dust generated in movable parts of various parts of the apparatus during operation. Further, the accumulation of dust on the surface of the recording medium has an effect over a long period of time, and when the dust accumulation is small, it is removed if the magnetic head is positioned in that area, so it remains at a fixed position for a long time. In this case, there has been proposed a method of automatically changing the position in the apparatus without a seek instruction from the system.

[0004]

However, in the conventional method, the execution interval of the patrol seek is fixed and cannot be set in accordance with the frequency with which the magnetic disk is used. If the execution interval is shortened, the dust removal effect will be improved, but the seek operation request from the system will come during the patrol seek operation, and the system will often wait until the patrol seek operation is completed It had the drawback of affecting performance.

An object of the present invention is to provide a patrol seek start control method for a magnetic disk drive, which reduces the chance of waiting for a seek instruction from a host device during patrol seek, and reduces the influence on system performance. .

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, in a patrol seek start control method for a magnetic disk device according to the present invention, a carriage mechanism having a magnetic head mounted thereon is sought (moved) according to an instruction from a host device. The seek operation performed by the magnetic disk device alone for the purpose of removing the minute dust (dust) accumulated on the surface of the recording medium without a seek operation instruction from the host device at fixed time intervals after the seek operation of the magnetic disk device that is positioned by (Patrol seek) is a method of controlling the activation, comprising a time counting means for timing a predetermined time, and a counting means for counting the number of patrol seek executions, the count value of the patrol seek execution frequency counting means A first step of initializing to “0”, setting the time measured by the time measuring means to an initial value, and restarting the time measurement; A second step of performing a seek control process when a seek operation instruction is given by an instruction of the host device, and after the second step, the count value of the patrol seek execution frequency counting means is initialized to "0", and the counting means The third step of setting the time measurement time of No. 1 to the initial value and starting re-time measurement, and performing the patrol seek control processing for executing the patrol seek when the time measurement time of the time measurement means has exceeded the set time After the fourth step, the time corresponding to the count value of the patrol seek frequency counting means is set after the fourth step, and is set to 1 when the count value of the patrol seek frequency counting means does not reach the maximum value (= N).
And a fifth step of starting the re-counting.

[0007]

According to the present invention, the patrol seek activation interval is set long when the magnetic disk device is frequently used and short when the magnetic disk device is not frequently used, and an opportunity to wait for a seek instruction from the host device during the patrol seek is set. To reduce the impact on system performance.

[0008]

The present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing the configuration of a seek control unit for carrying out the magnetic disk device and the patrol seek activation control method of the present invention.

In the figure, the seek controller is controlled by the sequence controller 4. The sequence control unit 4
A seek command is received from the control signal input / output interface 2 and seek information is received from the data input / output interface 1, and a seek operation is performed by controlling a carriage mechanism controller (not shown) via the seek control signal input / output interface 7.

Control information for activating the patrol seek, controlling the patrol seek operation and the seek operation is stored in the memory 3, and the use frequency of the timer 5 and the magnetic disk device for measuring the execution interval of the patrol seek is determined. Patrol seek frequency counting unit 6 for counting
Is equipped with.

FIG. 2 shows a processing procedure of patrol seek activation control by the sequence control unit 4.

First, the count value of the patrol seek number counting unit 6 is initialized (= 0) (step 21), and the set time of the timer 5 is initialized (t = t0: maximum time) (step 22). Re-measurement of the timer 5 is started (step 23).

Subsequently, when a seek instruction is received from the host device (step 24), the seek control device (step 25) is executed to execute the seek from the host device, and the count value of the patrol seek number counter 6 is initialized. (= 0) (step 26), and the initial setting of the set time of the timer 5 (t = t
0: the longest time) (step 27), and the timer 5 starts counting the time again (step 28).

The timer 5 is a timer for activating a patrol seek, and when the time is up (step 29),
A patrol seek control process (step 30) is executed to execute the patrol seek.

Next, the time of the timer 5 corresponding to the patrol seek count value is set (steps 31, 32, 3).
3 and 34), if the patrol seek count value has not reached the maximum value (= N), 1 is added to the patrol seek count value (step 35) and the timer 5 is restarted (step 36).

In FIG. 2, for simplification, when the patrol seek count value is less than a times, the set time t of the timer 5 is set to t0 (longest time), and the patrol seek count value is a times or more and less than N times. In this case, the set time t of the timer 5 is set to ta, and the set time t of the timer 5 is set to tN (shortest time) when the patrol seek count value reaches N times (maximum value), and the patrol seek start interval is set in three stages However, it is possible to set a to a1, a2, a3 ...

By the above processing, when there is a seek instruction from the host device, the patrol seek start time after seek execution is set to the longest time (steps 26, 27, 2).
8) If there is no seek instruction from the host device, the patrol seek start time interval will gradually become shorter (step 3
1, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36). However, once there is a seek instruction from the host device, the patrol seek start time is set to the maximum time again (step 26,
27, 28).

[0019]

As described above, according to the present invention, the patrol seek start interval is set longer when the magnetic disk drive is used frequently and shortened when the magnetic disk drive is used less frequently. This reduces the chance of waiting for a seek instruction from the device and reduces the effect on system performance.

Further, dust is likely to be accumulated when the frequency of use is low, but when the frequency of use is low, the patrol seek start interval is shortened, so that there is an effect of suppressing the accumulation of dust.

Further, since the patrol seek activation interval is short, there is an effect that dust on the entire surface of the storage medium can be removed in a short time.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing a configuration of a seek control unit for implementing a magnetic disk device and a patrol seek start control method according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a processing procedure of patrol seek activation control by a sequence control unit of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 data input / output interface 2 control signal input / output interface 3 memory 4 sequence control unit 5 timer 6 patrol seek frequency counting unit 7 seek control signal input / output interface

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A magnetic disk device that seeks (positions) a carriage mechanism carrying a magnetic head for positioning according to an instruction from a host device, and records without a seek operation instruction from the host device at fixed time intervals after completion of a seek operation. Seek operation performed by the magnetic disk device alone for the purpose of removing minute dust (dust) accumulated on the medium surface (patrol seek)
And a counting means for counting the number of times of patrol seek execution, wherein the count value of the patrol seek execution frequency counting means is "0". Initializing the clocking time of the clocking means to an initial value and starting re-clocking, and a second step of performing seek control processing when a seek operation instruction is given by an instruction from the host device. After the second step, the count value of the patrol seek execution frequency counting means is initialized to “0”, the time counting time of the counting means is set to an initial value, and the third step of starting re-time counting, and the time counting means The fourth step of performing a patrol seek control process for executing a patrol seek when the time measurement time of is over a set time, and the patrol after the fourth step. A time corresponding to the count value of the number-of-weeks counting means is set, and 1 is added when the count value of the patrol-seek number counting means does not reach the maximum value (= N). A patrol seek activation control method for a magnetic disk device, comprising: