JPH06338139A - Alternate processing method in information recording of writing once type information recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To extend a region on a medium freely, and to improve the efficiency of the utilization of an unused region by using a part of the unused region in the recording region of another application as an alternate-region extending section for data when there is no blank in a recording region. CONSTITUTION:When a file recorded in a region 12 for data is rewritten, an unused region in an alternate region 13 for data is investigated. Another region 12 is investigated when there is no blank in the region 13, and the procedure is set up so that a part of an unused region 12b can be employed as an extending section 13EXT in the alternate region for data when the region 12b is discovered in the region 12. Consequently, the unused regions of the region for data are decreased from 12b to 12b', but the blank region 13EXT formed by the decrease can be used as the alternate region 13 for data. The names of the extending region and a region to be extended and an extending range are recorded in a region 11 for a management region, and an operator is informed of the extension of the regions. Accordingly, the region on a medium can be extended freely, thus effectively utilizing the unused region.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a replacement processing method for recording information on a write-once type information recording medium.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a write-once type information recording medium such as an optical disk or an optical card, an optical recording material is provided on the surface of the medium, and spiral or concentric information recording tracks (in the case of an optical disk) or parallel to each other. An information recording track (in the case of an optical card) is provided. The information recording track is divided into one or a plurality of sectors, and recording and reproduction of information uses this sector as a minimum unit.

Generally, information (file) is recorded on an information recording medium.
When recording, the information (record data) to be actually recorded and the management information (directory) for managing it are usually recorded. This management information includes information such as the name (file name) of information to be recorded, the amount of information (file length), recording time, recording position, and the like.
When specific information is obtained from an information recording medium on which a plurality of pieces of information are recorded, a part or all of this management information is used to specify and refer to the target information.

When it is necessary to rewrite information such as changing the name of the file recorded on the information recording medium and changing / adding / deleting the recorded data itself,
In the case of a rewritable recording medium such as a magnetic disk,
Rewriting can be easily performed by overwriting the sector in which information has already been recorded, but in the case of a write-once type information recording medium, it is not possible to newly overwrite and record another information in the information recording sector used for recording once. Since this is not possible, replacement processing is often performed.

Here, the alternation process means that the updated information to be recorded later is recorded in an information recording sector which has not been used for recording, and which pre-update information is recorded where. When the information (replacement information) is also recorded and the updated information is reproduced, the renewed information is reproduced instead of the pre-updated information based on the replacement information, as if the information was overwritten. It behaves like Taka. By doing so, it becomes possible to rewrite file data and directories in the write-once type information recording medium as in the case of a normal rewritable information recording medium.

Further, even when the writing cannot be partially performed due to the defect or dust adhered on the information recording medium, it is as if the information was correctly written in the desired sector by performing the alternation process similar to the above. In some cases, it is processed.

In a series of information recording / reproducing procedures for a write-once type information recording medium, such alternation processing is a relatively low level processing (OS (operation system)).
The actual procedure (command operation) that the operator must perform when reading / writing information from / to the information recording medium is much simplified, as it is performed in direct processing for hardware such as that performed by various driver software. It is often done. That is, the operation contents that the operator must perform are often simple.

For example, when a general user changes the name of a file recorded on such an information recording medium, what replacement area is reserved in the information recording medium and what kind of area is reserved for the user. It doesn't matter at all whether the replacement information is recorded in the format, and it seems as if it could be rewritten on the surface just by performing the same procedure as the file name changing operation for the magnetic disk.

By the way, in the replacement process for the write-once type information recording medium, the information which has been once replaced and is no longer needed is often left as it is on the information recording medium without being intentionally overwritten and invalidated. By keeping such old information, it is possible to easily restore the previous recording state when the old information is needed again after the information is updated.

[0010]

In a write-once type information recording medium, data cannot be overwritten. Therefore, when rewriting a file, the changed file is recorded in a replacement area entirely by replacement processing. , By not using the original old file, it is as if the file was updated and recorded.

On the other hand, if the writing fails due to an abnormality of the information recording medium or a foreign substance such as dust, the information to be recorded by the alternation process is rewritten to another place (retry).

In order to perform the alternation process on the write-once type information recording medium, an information recording area necessary for the alternation process and a spare area for recording the information after alternation are previously formed on the information recording medium. However, since the area is finite, there is an upper limit to the number of times that the area can be replaced. In particular, in the case where writing errors occur frequently due to a bad usage environment of the information recording medium, the retry process causes more replacement processing than usual, and therefore the replacement area is used up.

In that case, the information recording medium cannot be replaced at all thereafter, and in fact, new writing cannot be performed. If you secure enough replacement areas, the probability of avoiding the above situation will be high, but if you do not use replacement frequently, those spare areas will remain unused. The overall information recording capacity will be reduced.

As a method for avoiding such waste, for example, by recording data from the head of the information recording medium to the rear and recording the management information from the rear of the medium to the head, the maximum recordable data is recorded. Although a method of balancing the capacity and the capacity occupied by the management information has been devised, such a method cannot be used when there are a plurality of types of management information.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to use an information recording medium so that when recording information on a write-once type information recording medium, replacement processing is possible as long as there is a free area even if the number of retries increases. It is to provide a replacement processing method with improved efficiency.

[0016]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is as follows. That is, the information recording area for recording information, the replacement information recording area used for writing when the recording of the information fails and the rewriting of the information, and the information recording area when the information is replaced In a replacement processing method for recording information on a write-once type information recording medium having a management information recording area for recording information for managing a history of replacement processing, an unused area in a recording area for a certain purpose When is less than or equal to the required amount, at least a part of the unused area of the recording area for other uses is assigned as an extension area for the recording area for the certain use and is used for recording.

[0017]

According to the present invention, in the replacement process for the write-once type information recording medium, when the free area of the recording area for a certain use becomes less than a required amount (which can be set arbitrarily) (when the free area becomes insufficient, ), At least a part of the unused area of the recording area for other purposes can be allocated and used for the recording area for the certain purpose where the free space becomes insufficient. According to this, it becomes possible to preferentially secure a recording area for a specific use in advance at a stage when there is a fear of insufficient free space.

[0018]

EXAMPLES Examples of the present invention will be described below. (First Embodiment) FIGS. 1 and 2 are views showing the outline of an optical card which is an example of a write-once type information recording medium to which the present invention can be applied. A recording area 2 is formed on the surface of the optical card 1. An optical recording material layer for optically recording information is formed in the recording area 2, so that information can be optically recorded in the recording area 2.

In the recording area 2, as shown in an enlarged view of FIG. 2, an information recording track 3 extending in the longitudinal direction of the optical card 1.
Are provided in plural. All tracks 3 have a track address section 4, and track addresses T01 to T06 indicating physical position information of each track are recorded in advance in each track address section 4. Although the track address area 4 is located on the right side of the track 3 in FIG. 2, it may be located on the left side or both the left and right sides.

Each track 3 in FIG. 2 has one or a plurality of sectors 5 formed therein. For example, one sector is formed at the track address T01 and 12 sectors are formed at the track address T05. In the case of an optical card capable of recording in one sector in the figure, it is assumed that sectors of different sizes can be formed for each track in this way. The amount of information that can be recorded in each size sector is shown in FIG.
It is assumed that there is a size relationship similar to the size of each sector illustrated in FIG. 2, but the area ratio does not always match.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining various areas taken on the information recording medium 1. On the information recording medium 1, three areas, that is, a management information area 11, a data area 12, and a data alternation area 13 are provided. Each area is used in order from the top to the bottom of the figure, and the upper half of the data area 12 shows the used area 12a and the lower half shows the unused area 12b.

Now, let us consider a case where all the data alternation areas 13 are used up. Conventionally, in such a case, no data area can be replaced thereafter. FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram for explaining the extension of the area according to the present invention, and FIG. 6 is a flowchart for explaining the extension method of the area, showing a procedure for recording newly replaced information.

The flow of processing will be described below with reference to FIG. If rewriting of the file recorded in the data area 12 occurs, first, in Step P20.
The unused area 13b is checked by checking the free capacity of a predetermined area in which the rewritten information is recorded at 1, that is, the data replacement area 13.

If there is a free area in the area 13, the process proceeds to step P204, and the replacement data is written in the free area. At this time, if there is no free space in this area 13 (assuming that all areas are used areas 13a), in step P202, unused areas in other areas (for example, the data area 12) are inspected.

If there is no free space in the other area, the process proceeds to step P205 to perform error processing when the replacement processing cannot be performed, and the processing ends. If an unused area is found in another area, a procedure is performed in step P203 so that a part of the unused area can be used as an extended area of the data replacement area. For example, when the unused area 12b is found in the data area 12 as shown in FIG. 4, a part of the unused area 12b of the data area 12 in FIG.
A procedure for using the address A2001 and subsequent addresses as indicated by the shaded area in FIG. 5 as the data alternate area is performed. As a result, the shaded area in FIG. 5 becomes the alternate area extension portion 13EXT for data, and the unused area of the data area is reduced from 12b to 12b '. (13E
XT) can be used as the data replacement area 13.

This procedure is to record the names of the extended area and the extended area and the extended range in the management information area 11 in the data format as shown in FIG. 7, for example. If the area is expanded, step P20
In step P201, the completely same processing as in the case where there is a free area in step P201 is performed on the newly expanded area. That is, in the case of this example, this extended area 13EXT is used as an unused area originally present in the data alternate area 13, and the file is recorded therein.

When a medium whose area is expanded in this way is read, the area is expanded by reading the record information indicating the expansion of the area recorded in the management information area 11. It is possible to know that, and it is possible to perform the subsequent recording and reproduction correctly.

This embodiment is shown in FIG. 4 used in the above description.
The data management method is not limited to that shown in FIGS. 5, 6, and 7, and the names, uses, recording positions, etc. of the respective areas can be variously modified. Also, the area to be expanded is not limited to the alternate area for data, and the area for securing the area of the expanded portion is not limited to the area for data. For example, after the area for management information is used up An extended area of the management information area may be secured and used in an unused portion of the alternate area. In addition, the unused areas of the respective areas may be combined and used as an extended area for a specific purpose, or the unused area of a certain area may be distributed to areas where it is necessary to secure the extended area. Further, the recording position of the information indicating that the area has been expanded is not limited to the management information area, and may be recorded anywhere as long as it is within the same medium.

For example, at the stage where the data replacement area 13 initially set as shown in the embodiment shown in FIG. 8 has been used up (including the case where it remains but does not reach the capacity of the file to be written). , The unused area 12b of the data area 12 is reduced to be reduced to 12b '(the new data area 12' is reduced to the used area 12a and the reduced unused area 12b '), and the floating area is managed. Area 1
It is also possible to secure 1 and the extended areas 11EXT and 13EXT of the data alternate area 13. Further, the same area may be expanded in a plurality of times (a method in which one expansion is minimized and expansion is performed each time expansion is required). This will be described below.

(Second Embodiment) FIG. 9 shows a second embodiment according to the present invention.
10 is a flow chart for explaining an area expansion method and shows a procedure for recording newly replaced information. In the first embodiment,
Although the area is expanded after all the area is completely used, in the second embodiment, when the area, for example, the unused area 13b of the data replacement area 13 becomes a certain amount or less, As in the example, this is a method of previously securing an expansion area in the unused area 12b of the data area 12.

The process flow will be described below with reference to FIG. First, when rewriting occurs in the data area 12, first, in step P301, the free space of a predetermined area in which the rewritten information is recorded, that is, the data replacement area 13, is checked. At this time, if the free space in the area 13 is smaller than the preset free space, the process proceeds to step P303, and the unused areas in other areas are inspected.

If there is a sufficient space in another area, the area is expanded in step P304, and the area is expanded in step P3.
Go to 02. If there is no free space in the other area, the process proceeds to step P302 without expanding the area.

If it is determined in step P302 that there is no replacement area, no replacement is possible, so the procedure advances to step P306, error processing is performed, and the processing ends. If there is a replacement area, the replacement process is performed as usual in step P305, and the process ends.

As described above, in the second embodiment, when the unused area 13b of the data alternate area 13 becomes less than a certain amount, the data area 12 is used in the same manner as the above example.
An unused area 12b is secured in advance as an extended area.

That is, as in the first embodiment described with reference to FIG. 8, when the data replacement area 13 is used up and then the area is expanded, all the data area 12 is used up at that point. If it had,
The area cannot be expanded any further, and if the already recorded data needs to be changed, no change can be made. However, as in the present embodiment, the data replacement area 13 cannot be changed. If a portion of the data area 12 is reserved as the extended portion 13EXT of the data alternate area when the remaining amount becomes small to some extent, the data area 1
It is possible to rewrite the data even after the 2 has been used up first.

As described above, when the replacement method according to the present embodiment is used, the replacement area is secured preferentially over the other areas with respect to a specific area in which it is desirable to always secure the replacement area. You will be able to. For example, when a file that has been written once is updated or modified or data is added and written, if the same file name is used, this will be written in the alternate area for data, and not in the area for data. If the same file name is used and the file is rewritten frequently, only the data replacement area is consumed.

In this case, since the data area is not consumed, the unused area of the data area is sequentially diverted to the data replacement area so that the unused area can be consumed in a well-balanced manner and the data replacement area can be consumed. The occurrence of write-disabled situations due to lack of free area in the area is reduced. Furthermore, not only the data area change, but also the change area of the directory area (management information area) can be rewritten more than a predetermined number of times, which can be similarly expanded.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, but can be variously modified. For example, in FIG. 9, the replacement area for data is expanded when the remaining amount becomes equal to or less than a certain amount, but it can be expanded for other areas. It is also possible to combine different expansion methods, such that one area is expanded when all areas are used up and another area is expanded when the remaining amount is below a certain amount. . Further, according to the present invention, when the expansion area is secured, a part of the unused area is divided, but this may be the entire unused area.

Thus, by expanding the arbitrary area to the unused portion of the arbitrary area, it is possible to effectively use the unused portion on the medium when recording information on the write-once medium. Will be possible.

Now, the retry process that often occurs in the above-mentioned alternation process will be additionally mentioned. As described above, retry means another location if the information to be recorded in the replacement area due to the replacement processing cannot be written in the specified sector due to an abnormality in the information recording medium or foreign matter such as dust. It means rewriting to (sector).

It is quite conceivable that the writing at the time of this retry will also fail due to the same reason. In such a case, if the upper limit of the number of retries is not set, or if the number of retries is set to a very large number, a replacement area is consumed for each retry process due to a write failure, so retry is performed. As a result, the rewriting operation is repeated until it succeeds, and the replacement area is wasted. Therefore, if the number of retries is increased, the writing is repeated up to the maximum number of times when the writing is not successful, which leads to a waste of the replacement area.

On the contrary, if the number of retries is set to be small, the situation in which writing cannot be normally performed within the predetermined number of retries occurs, the number of procedures that the user has to process increases, and the burden on the user becomes heavy. Will be lost.

Therefore, it is necessary to carefully determine the number of retries, but the error occurrence state due to dust etc.
It cannot be uniformly decided because it greatly changes depending on the management status and usage status of the information recording medium.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for an example of such a situation, and is a flow chart showing an example of a processing procedure in which the setting of the number of times of writing data and the number of retries is made variable. The flow will be described with reference to the figure. First, step P
At 00, it is determined whether the retry count is set or data is actually written. In the case of setting the number of retries, the upper limit number of retries specified in P101 is changed to n, and the process ends. Here, n is an arbitrary number that is input to the device from the user by another means (not shown), for example, an input device such as a keyboard, and is input to the device at least before the start of this procedure. To do. In the case of data writing, the data is written in the normal data recording area in step P01. Step P0
In step 2, it is confirmed whether or not the writing has been normally performed. If the writing has been normally performed, the writing process is ended.

If there is an error, the data is written in the replacement area in step P03. The result is judged in Step P04, and if the writing is normal, the history information of the present alternation process is recorded on the information recording medium in Step P06, and the process is terminated. In this case, if the target data is treated as being recorded correctly on the surface, the higher-level procedure that requests writing becomes simple.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step P04 that the writing has not been normally performed, the number of retries determined in advance in step P05 is decremented by 1, and it is determined in step P07 whether or not it is within the specified number of times. To do. As a result, if it is within the limit, step P03 is executed again.
And branches to and writes to the replacement area.

In this way, retry writing is performed until the specified number of times is reached. If the retry is not successful within the specified number of times, error processing is performed in step P08. That is, in this case, the data writing process has finally failed.

In this way, by setting the upper limit of the number of retries used in step P05 to be arbitrarily set in step P101, for example,
If you want to simplify the process without giving much consideration to errors when writing data, set a large number of retries, and if you want to know the error occurrence state when writing, set a small number of retries. It enables the usage as described. That is, by setting the retry count to a large number, even if an error occurs at the time of writing, the probability of successful writing within the retry limit number of times increases, so the frequency of eventual write errors decreases. Becomes
It is not necessary to consider an error or the like at the time of writing data, and the processing is simplified.

On the contrary, if the number of retries is set to a small number, for example, "1", the write error occurred in the data alternate area can be grasped in the higher-level procedure (that is, the operator can know it). In addition, it is useful for detecting abnormal cases such as stains on the information recording medium, and it becomes possible to grasp the error occurrence state at the time of writing to some extent in a precise manner, and it is possible to omit wasteful replacement processing. Become.

[0050]

As described in detail above, according to the information recording / reproducing method of the present invention, various areas on the medium can be freely expanded, so that the unused area on the medium can be effectively used. As for a particularly important area, the area can be preferentially expanded, so that reliability at the time of recording information is improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining an embodiment of the present invention,
The figure explaining the outline of the optical card to which this invention is applicable.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining an embodiment of the present invention,
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of tracks and sectors of the optical card of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of a replacement process including a procedure of setting the number of tri-writes.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining an embodiment of the present invention,
The figure explaining the distribution structure in the initial stage of various information recording areas.

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining an embodiment of the present invention,
FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a state in which a data replacement area is expanded according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining an embodiment of the present invention,
The flowchart explaining the flow of a process by this invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining an embodiment of the present invention,
The figure explaining the recording format of the extended information of a recording area by this invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining an embodiment of the present invention,
The figure explaining another example of the expansion method of the recording area by this invention.

FIG. 9 is a view for explaining the embodiment of the present invention,
The figure explaining another example of the expansion method of the recording area by the 2nd Example of this invention.

FIG. 10 is a diagram for explaining the embodiment of the present invention and is a flow chart for explaining the processing of the second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Write-once type information recording medium (optical card) 2 ... Recording area 11 ... Management information area 11EXT ... Management information area expansion area 12 ... Data area 12a ... Data area used area 12b ... Data area Unused area 13 ... Alternate area for data 13a ... Used area of alternate area for data 13b ... Unused area of alternate area for data 13EXT ... Extended area of alternate area for data

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An information recording area for recording information,
When the recording of the information fails and when the information is rewritten, the replacement information recording area used for writing and the information for managing the history of the replacement processing when the information is replaced are recorded. In the alternate processing method for recording information on the write-once type information recording medium having a management information recording area for recording, when the unused area of the recording area for a certain purpose is less than the required amount, it is used for other purposes. Of at least a part of the unused area of the recording area is allocated as an extended area for the recording area for the certain purpose and is used for recording, and the alternation processing method in the information recording of the write-once information recording medium.