JPH07239755A - Information recording and reproducing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily connect an information recording device such as an optical disk to a host control unit such as a host computer. CONSTITUTION:This information recording and reproducing device has a ROM 6-5 as a storage means which is connected to the host computer 8 and stores control software for controlling the information recording and reproducing device, a CPU 6-1 as a control means which executes the control software, and a RAM 6-2 and a nonvolatile memory 6-6 which temporarily store recording information, and, a part of information which should be stored in an information recording medium, is stored in the nonvolatile memory in advance, and a selection switch 6-7 which selects and connects the nonvolatile memory and RAM to the host computer, is controlled according to whether or not the disk is loaded to enable the optical disk to immediately be used by the simple connection, thereby expanding the utilization range of the device.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information recording / reproducing apparatus, and more particularly, to connect an information recording / reproducing apparatus for recording / reproducing information to / from a disc-shaped recording medium or a card-shaped recording medium to which an information recording medium is detachable and a host controller. It relates to means for facilitating.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, an optical disc has a high recording density, a long life of the medium because recording and reproducing can be performed in a non-contact manner, and a random access is much faster than a medium such as a tape. Many proposals have been made for CDs, VLPs, image files, data files, document files as recording / playback devices. In particular, as a data file, a large-capacity information portable medium or a fixed magnetic disk under the control of a large number of operating system software (hereinafter referred to as OS) by a specific computer maker such as UNIX, MS-DOS, Macintosh, etc. Used as an alternative to.

In order to connect and use the information recording / reproducing apparatus with many types of OS as described above, by registering a device driver for recognizing the information recording / reproducing apparatus in each OS, the information recording / reproducing apparatus is described. Is used as a memory capable of reading and writing data on each OS. The present invention relates to improvement in connectivity between the information recording / reproducing apparatus and the host controller.

An example of a conventional information recording / reproducing apparatus will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a conventional information recording / reproducing apparatus, and shows an example of a general configuration of an optical disk recording / reproducing apparatus which is an information recording / reproducing apparatus. The optical disc recording / reproducing apparatus will be described below as an example of the information recording / reproducing apparatus.

In FIG. 9, reference numeral 91 is a disk-shaped recording medium (hereinafter referred to as an optical disk) which is a medium capable of recording and reproducing data, 92 is a recording / reproducing head which is the recording / reproducing means for recording or reproducing, and 93 is an optical disk 91. A disk motor for rotating the disk, 94 a recording / reproducing head controller for controlling the position of the recording / reproducing head 92, and 95 a recording / reproducing head 9.
Demodulation of signal reproduced by 2 and recording / reproducing head 92
, 96 is a signal processing unit for performing modulation for recording, and 96 is an apparatus control unit for issuing a command to the disk motor 93, the recording / reproducing head control unit 94 and the signal processing unit 95, and 96-1 is a ROM 96 which is a control software storage unit. A CPU 96-2, which is a control means for executing the control software of the information recording / reproducing apparatus stored in -5, temporarily stores the information transferred from the host computer to the optical disk 91 and the information transferred from the optical disk 91 to the host computer. RAM, 96-3
Is an ECC for generating error correction information in the information to be recorded on the optical disc at the time of recording, and error correction of data from the optical disc at the time of reading, 96-4 is a disc motor 93, a recording / reproducing control unit 94, a signal processing unit 95. A control signal input / output unit to which the above are connected, and an interface unit 97 for communicating with the host computer 98.

A method of setting the conventional optical disk recording / reproducing apparatus configured as described above to a usable state under a specific OS will be described below with reference to the drawings. CO
Description will be made using a Macintosh OS manufactured by MPUTER as an example.

In order to connect the optical disk recording / reproducing apparatus to the host computer 98, a device driver corresponding to each OS is required. This device driver executes the read / write processing of the logical format corresponding to each OS in order to enable the optical disk recording / reproducing apparatus to be used on each OS, and replaces the optical disk which is a feature of the optical disk recording / reproducing apparatus. In this case, it has a function of executing a process associated with disc exchange in such a case, and is indispensable software when a peripheral device such as an optical disc recording / reproducing device is used on each OS.

In the case of the Macintosh OS, the device driver saved in the form of a file in the system information in the system boot device is read and registered in the OS, or
By reading out the device driver recorded on the optical disk formatted for the Macintosh and registering it on the OS, the optical disk recording / reproducing apparatus can be used on the Macintosh OS.

FIG. 10 illustrates a device driver registration processing procedure for enabling the conventional optical disk recording / reproducing apparatus to be used in the Macintosh OS.

First, in step 101, the host computer 98 and the optical disk recording / reproducing apparatus are turned on, and in step 102, the system boot BootROM in the host computer is activated, and step 1
In order to perform the registration processing of the device driver stored on the optical disc 91 of the optical disc recording / reproducing apparatus connected in 03, a read command of data from sector 0 of the optical disc is issued in step 103-1. In response to this read command, the CPU 96-1 in the device control unit 96 confirms whether or not the optical disc is mounted, and if the optical disc is mounted,
The recording / reproducing head control unit 94 moves the recording / reproducing head 92 to the track including the sector 0, and controls the signal processing unit 95, the device control unit 96, and the interface unit 97 to transfer the data read from the sector 0 to the host computer 98. To do. If the optical disk 91 is not mounted or the data cannot be read normally from the sector 0, the read command for the sector 0 in step 103-1 does not end normally but ends abnormally. In step 103-2, it is determined whether or not the read command for the sector 0 in step 103-1 is normally completed. If the read command is normally completed, the start position and the length of the device driver recorded in the information of the sector 0 are determined. In step 103-4, a read command for reading the device driver is issued based on the information, and the device control unit 96 reads the information of the specified sector from the optical disc and transfers it to the host computer 98 to record it on the optical disc 91. A device driver for the device is registered on the OS.
If the device driver registration from the optical disk cannot be performed in step 103, the device driver has already been registered in step 103 in order to perform the device driver registration processing stored in the system information in the system boot device in step 104. It is determined in step 104-1 whether it has been completed. If it is not registered,
In step 104-2, it is determined whether or not the device driver file exists in the system information in the system boot device, and if it exists, the device driver is read from the system information and registered in the OS in step 104-3. To be done. If the device driver is already registered in step 103, the device driver registration from the system information in step 104 is not executed.

Step 103 or step 104
If the registration of the device driver on the OS in step 1 fails, the device driver of the optical disk recording / reproducing apparatus is not registered as shown in step 105, and step 1
03, or if the device driver registration in step 104 is successful, the device driver is normally registered as shown in step 106, and step 107
The subsequent processing is continued. If the device driver of the optical disk recording / reproducing apparatus is not registered as shown in step 105, the optical disk recording / reproducing apparatus cannot be used on the OS thereafter.

[0012]

However, in the configuration of the above-mentioned conventional information recording / reproducing apparatus, in the case of the information recording / reproducing apparatus in which the information recording medium is attachable / detachable, when the information recording medium is not attached at the time of system startup. At that time, the device driver registration process from the information recording / reproducing apparatus in step 103 cannot be normally executed. Further, in order to save the device driver in the system information in the system boot device, it is necessary to previously save the device driver for the information recording / reproducing device distributed in the floppy disk or the like in the system information in the system boot device. If this device driver file does not exist in the system information, the device driver cannot be properly read from the system information, so that the device driver for the information recording / reproducing apparatus cannot be registered on the OS and the information recording cannot be performed. The playback device cannot be used on the OS.

In view of the above problems, the present invention provides a desired OS by simply electrically connecting the device to the host computer in order to realize easier connectivity to the host computer.
It is an object to provide an information recording / reproducing device that can be used in an environment.

[0014]

In order to achieve this object, an information recording / reproducing apparatus of the present invention is connected to a host computer as a host controller and records / reproduces information on / from an information recording medium. In order to record / reproduce information to / from the information recording / reproducing apparatus, the ROM is a storage unit that stores the control software, the CPU is the control unit that executes the control software stored in the ROM, and the information recording medium. It has a RAM for temporary storage and a non-volatile memory as a non-volatile storage means, and has a configuration in which a part of information to be stored in the information recording medium is stored in advance in the non-volatile memory.

Further, the nonvolatile memory and the RAM are selected and the selecting means for connecting to the host computer and the selecting means are configured to control the selected state by the presence or absence of a disk, a command of the host computer or a fixing means such as a switch.

Further, a plurality of similar non-volatile memories are provided, and a switching means for switching the plurality of non-volatile storage means is provided by a scanning means or the like which scans manually or sequentially until it can be recognized depending on the type of the host computer.

[0017]

With the above configuration, when an optical disc is loaded in the optical disc recording / reproducing apparatus when the host computer system is started, the device driver is read from the optical disc or the non-volatile memory, and when the optical disc is not loaded, the device driver is read from the non-volatile memory. It operates to read the device driver and register the device driver on the OS.

O of the host computer to be further connected
Even if the S is different, or if an irrelevant disk is mistakenly mounted, the plurality of nonvolatile memories are switched by manual or automatic scanning so that the ones recognizable by the host computer are transferred.

With such a configuration and operation, the device driver can be registered even when the information recording / reproducing apparatus is not mounted in the information recording / reproducing apparatus when the host computer system is started, and the system of the host computer is preliminarily registered. There is no need to save the device driver in the system information in the boot device, and the information recording / reproducing device is electrically connected to the host computer by using a connector. Therefore, it is possible to expand the range of use of the device.

[0020]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an optical disk recording / reproducing apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 is an optical disk which is a medium capable of recording and reproducing the data, 2 is a recording / reproducing head for recording or reproducing, 3 is a disk motor for rotating the optical disk, and 4 is recording for controlling the position of the recording / reproducing head 2. The reproducing head controller 5 is a signal processor 6 for demodulating a signal reproduced by the recording / reproducing head 2 and for modulating the signal for recording by the recording / reproducing head 2.
Is a device control unit for issuing commands to the disk motor 3, the recording / reproducing head control unit 4, and the signal processing unit 5, and 6-1 is a ROM.
A CPU for executing control software of the information recording / reproducing apparatus stored in 6-5, a RAM 6-2 for temporarily storing information from the host computer or information to be read from the optical disk and transferred to the host computer, and 6-3 for recording. ECC for performing error correction information generation on the information to be recorded on the optical disc at the time, and error correction of data from the optical disc at the time of reading, 6-4 for the disc motor 3, the recording / reproducing head control unit 4, the signal processing unit 5, etc. Is connected to the control signal input / output unit, 6-6 is a non-volatile memory, and 6-7 is 6-2.
A selection switch which is a means for selecting the RAM and the 6-6 non-volatile memory, and 7 is an interface section which communicates with the host computer 8.

The information recording / reproducing apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention configured as described above will be described below with reference to FIGS.
The method of connecting to the host computer will be described with reference to.

FIG. 2 shows, as an example, a device driver registration processing procedure for enabling the optical disk recording / reproducing apparatus to be used in the above-mentioned Macintosh OS.
This will be described using the optical disc recording / reproducing apparatus of the embodiment.

First, at step 21, when the power of the host computer 8 and the optical disk recording / reproducing apparatus is turned on, the boot ROM for booting the system in the host computer is started at step 22, and step 23
In order to perform the registration processing of the device driver stored on the optical disc 1 of the optical disc recording / reproducing apparatus connected in step 23-1, a command for reading data from sector 0 is issued in step 23-1. In response to this read command, the CPU 6-1 in the device control section 6 transfers the data of the sector 0 from the nonvolatile memory 6-6 in step 23-3 in step 23-2. In step 23-5, a read command for reading the device driver is issued based on the information about the start position and the length of the device driver recorded in the information of sector 0 acquired in step 23-3, and the device control unit 6 Transfers the device driver information from the non-volatile memory 6-6 in step 23-7. The information transferred at this time is originally the same as the information recorded at the position on the optical disc indicated by the recorded content of sector 0 of the optical disc 1, and is incorporated at the stage when the optical disc recording / reproducing apparatus was produced. It is what With the above configuration, the device driver registration in step 23 is normally executed. Therefore, in step 24-1, the process of reading the device driver from the system information in the system activation apparatus determines in step 24-1 whether the device driver is already registered. Since the device driver has already been registered in step 23, the process proceeds to step 26, in which the device driver is always read from the optical disk recording / reproducing apparatus and normally registered in the OS. There is no need to save the device driver in advance. Therefore, the user can instantly bring the optical disk recording / reproducing apparatus into a usable state by simply connecting the optical disk recording / reproducing apparatus and the host computer. Furthermore, since you can complete the settings without having a disk containing device driver information, you can easily set up a system including the host computer and optical disk recording / playback device to a usable form simply by preparing an unused disk. is there.

The arrangement of each information on the above-mentioned optical disk and non-volatile memory will be described with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4.
FIG. 3 shows the arrangement of each main information on the optical disk, and is a conceptual information arrangement diagram in which the disk-shaped physical shapes are arranged in a line in units of sectors. D0 is a device driver position information area, D1 is a disk management information area,
D2 indicates a device driver area, and D3 indicates a data area. Here, D0 is an area called sector 0 in the present invention, and it is a specific area D such as the innermost circumference or the outermost circumference of the disc.
In 0, the position of the device driver information on the optical disk is recorded by a combination of the head sector and the last sector or the head sector and the information length. The head sector means the head sector n of the D2 area in the figure, and the device driver information is recorded in the recording area up to the sector P thereafter. In the disc management information area D1, information indicating where and what information is recorded in the data area D3 and alternative information indicating a position where a part of the information that could not be normally recorded in the data area is rewritten are recorded. This is the area that is being used. D3 is an area in which the user can freely record and reproduce data and programs, and occupies the largest area of the above-mentioned areas D0 to D3 of the optical disk on which recording and reproduction are possible. Depending on the type of the optical disk, it is 100 MB to 1 GB. Have a capacity.
The other area has a capacity of several KB to several tens of KB.

FIG. 4 shows the arrangement of each main information on the nonvolatile memory 6-6 of the present invention as described above. M0 means a device driver position information area, M1 means a disk management information area, M2 means a device driver area, and M3 means an unused area. Comparing FIG. 3 and FIG. 4, the contents of the information are different because D0 and M0 correspond to each other but the designated position information is different. D1 and M1 are the disc management information, and the information about the memory arrangement in the non-volatile memory is recorded in the M1 in the same manner as the management information of the D1. However, the capacities of D3 and M3 are significantly larger in the optical disc. Therefore, M1 has a small amount of information. D2 and M2 are device driver information having the same content. However, although the information of D2 can be redistributed by improving the performance and function in accordance with the improvement of the function, the content of M0 remains the information incorporated when the device was manufactured.

Next, a second embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a second embodiment of a device driver registration processing procedure using the optical disc recording / reproducing apparatus of FIG. The difference from the flowchart shown in FIG. 2 is that it is determined in step 53-2, 53-6 whether or not the optical disc is mounted, and the branch processing is performed based on the determination result.

First, at step 51, when the power of the host computer 8 and the optical disk recording / reproducing apparatus is turned on, the boot ROM for system activation in the host computer is started at step 52, and the optical disk recording / reproducing connected at step 53. In order to perform the registration process of the device driver stored on the optical disc 1 of the apparatus, a read command of data from sector 0 is issued in step 53-1. In response to this read command, in step 53-2, the CPU 6-1 in the device control unit 6 outputs the output of a switch (not shown) for detecting that the cartridge containing the optical disk is properly mounted in the device. Focus control for causing a light spot to follow the optical disc from the recording / reproducing head control unit 34,
The optical disc becomes normal by one or more inputs from signals such as that each control system of the track following control is operating normally and that the sector information from the signal processing unit 35 is normally read. Confirm that it is installed.
If no optical disc is loaded, step 53
-3, the data of the sector 0 is transferred from the nonvolatile memory 6-6. If the optical disc 1 is loaded,
The recording / reproducing head 2 is connected to the recording / reproducing head controller 4 in the sector 0.
To the host computer 8 to transfer the data read from the sector 0 to the host computer 8 by controlling the signal processing unit 5, the device control unit 6, and the interface unit 7. In step 53-5, a read command for reading the device driver is issued based on the information about the start position and length of the device driver recorded in the information of sector 0 acquired in step 53-3 or step 53-4. In step 53-6, the device control section 6 confirms whether or not an optical disk is mounted. If the optical disk 1 is not mounted, the information of the sector designated in step 53-5 is checked in step 53-. 7, the data is transferred from the nonvolatile memory 6-6. When the optical disk 1 is mounted, the recording / reproducing head control unit 4 moves the recording / reproducing head 2 to the track including the designated sector, and the signal processing unit 5, the device control unit 6, and the interface unit 7 are moved.
The data read from the designated sector is transferred to the host computer 8 by controlling the. With the above configuration, step 53
Since the device driver registration in step 5 is normally executed, the process of reading the device driver from the system information in the system boot device in step 54 is step 5
In 4-1 it is judged whether or not the device driver is already registered. Since it is already registered in step 53, the process proceeds to step 56 and the device driver is always read from the optical disk recording / reproducing apparatus and normally registered in the OS. Therefore, the work of pre-storing the device driver in the system information in the system activation device is not necessary. As described above, the presence / absence of the optical disk is detected, the nonvolatile memory 6-6 and the RAM 6-2 are selected, and the information is transferred to the host computer. In addition to the effect that you can finish the setting even if you do not have the disc at hand, it will be distributed using the optical disc when the device driver of this example is revised or improved, so it will start up with the optical disc installed. If you do so, the latest device driver will always be available.

Further, in the process of reading the device driver recorded on the optical disc 1 and registering it in the OS of the host computer, it is possible to confirm whether or not the mounted optical disc can be used on a specific OS such as Macintosh. If yes, it is possible to continue the subsequent use. If not, it is possible to perform a process of formatting into a logical format usable by the OS. Therefore, the same information as the device driver information read from the optical disk 1 is stored in advance in the non-volatile memory 6-6 in order to perform data recording / reading operation which is a general usage pattern. It also has the effect that no software is required.

A third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the same FIGS. 1 and 6. The configuration of this example is the same as that of the first and second examples. In the second embodiment, data is read from the optical disc 1 and transferred in response to a read command issued from the host computer 8 when the system is started, depending on whether the optical disc 1 is loaded or not. Part of the information recorded above is stored in the non-volatile memory 6-6, and the device control unit 6 controls whether to transfer from the non-volatile memory 6-6. However, even when the optical disk 1 is mounted on the optical disk recording / reproducing apparatus side, a unique command for reading the information stored in the nonvolatile memory 6-6 and transferring it to the host computer 8 is prepared, and the host computer 8
Issue this unique command, the non-volatile memory 6-
6 can be configured to transfer data,
The device driver settings can be speeded up.

In FIG. 6, first in step 61,
When the power of the host computer 8 and the optical disk recording / reproducing apparatus is turned on, a boot ROM for system activation in the host computer is started in step 62, and the nonvolatile memory of the optical disk recording / reproducing apparatus or the optical disk 1 connected in step 63 is connected. A process based on a command from the host computer is performed in order to select a device driver registration process to be stored in. FIG. 6 shows a case where the nonvolatile memory is selected. In step 64, a series of device driver read processing is performed, and in step 63-1 a command for reading data from sector 0 is issued. In response to this read command, in step 63-2, the CPU 6-
1 transfers the data of the sector 0 from the nonvolatile memory 6-6. Based on the information about the start position and length of the device driver recorded in the information of sector 0 acquired in step 63-3, a read command for reading the device driver is issued, and the device control unit 6 causes step 63-
At 4, the device driver information is transferred from the nonvolatile memory 6-6. The information transferred at this time is basically the same as the information originally recorded at the position on the optical disc indicated by the recorded content of sector 0 of the optical disc 1, and an optical disc recording / reproducing apparatus was produced. It is built in at the stage. With the above configuration, the device driver registration in step 64 is normally executed, so it is determined in step 65 whether the device driver is already registered. Since it is already registered in step 64, the process proceeds to step 66 and the device driver is always an optical disc. Since it is read out from the recording / reproducing apparatus and normally registered in the OS, the work of pre-storing the device driver in the system information in the system activation apparatus is also unnecessary. After that, in the case of the present embodiment, in step 68, the selection switch is switched to the RAM side in order to secure the normal recording / reproducing operation on the optical disk, and the device driver registration processing ends. Due to this, in addition to the simplification of setting similar to the above-mentioned embodiment, due to the convenience of the host computer side, for example, at the time of cold start such as when the power supply is simply opened and closed, it is read from the optical disk, and a warming due to an instantaneous power failure or reset switch It is possible to realize more advanced usage such as ensuring high-speed processing by reading from the non-volatile memory at the time of start.

Next, a fourth embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 7 has the same configuration as that of FIG. 1 except for the fixed switch 6-8. The feature of this embodiment is that the first to third embodiments intentionally perform the information transfer processing at the time of start-up, only the optical disc,
The configuration is such that it can be fixed only to the non-volatile memory according to the intention of the user, and other configurations and operations are the same as those in the above-described embodiment. Therefore, the operation when the fixed switch 6-8 is instructing the non-volatile memory is shown in the flowchart of FIG. 2, and the operation when the fixed switch 6-8 is instructing the optical disk is the flowchart of FIG. 10 of the conventional example. The action to be displayed can be selected. This is because, for example, when the user obtains an improved device driver, or when the user does not want to register the optical disk device on the OS even if the optical disk device is connected to the host computer, for example, comparing the processing speeds is performed by connecting two optical disk devices. It can be used when one is usable and the other is not usable.

Next, a fifth embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. 8 is different from FIG. 7 in that the nonvolatile memory is 6-6.
a, 6-6b, and 6-6c are provided in plurality, and the selection switch 6-7a has the number of switching selections that is the number of the plurality of nonvolatile memories plus one for RAM.
Further, as described in the fourth embodiment, when it is assumed that the nonvolatile memory is fixed to a certain non-volatile memory for a special purpose, the fixed switch 6-8a having the same designated number as the selected number of the selective switches is necessary if necessary. Can be provided. In the case of the present embodiment, it becomes possible to connect to a plurality of host computers having different OSs and realize the simplification of setting which is the effect of the present invention. A plurality of nonvolatile memories 6-6a to 6-6
As a method of selecting c, the CPU 6-1 can judge by a command from the host computer and select the selection switch. Further, the user can specify one of the RAM and a plurality of nonvolatile memories by operating the fixed switch. Further, the setting can be automatically performed by controlling the CPU 6-1 and sequentially switching and scanning the selection switch until the host computer can recognize it. However, in this case, it is necessary to have a function of repeating until the host computer side can recognize it on the OS. Further, after the start-up process is completed, it is necessary to return the selection switch to the RAM as described with reference to FIG. 2 and the like, and to connect the optical disk at the time of normal recording / reproduction. It is within the scope of application of the present invention to enable the non-volatile memory to be selected by a command from the host computer even during normal recording / reproduction when the data is stored in a non-volatile memory. A response can be realized.

According to the above construction, even when connecting to a plurality of types of host computers, it is possible to bring the optical disk device into a usable state by a very simple operation without being aware of the difference in OS types. It is possible and very effective in expanding the range of use.

As a sixth embodiment, in the optical disk device having the structure shown in FIGS. 1 and 8, information in the RAM 6-2 read from the optical disk is read by making the nonvolatile memory a writable type such as a RAM with backup by a battery. Can be recorded in the non-volatile memory via the CPU 6-1 and the information in the non-volatile memory can be always updated to the latest state via the distributed optical disk in accordance with improvement in function and performance.

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described using the non-volatile memory, the information holding means is not limited, and the holding means is, for example, an electrically erasable and writable ROM. It is conceivable that a holding means such as a RAM holding a battery or a battery or an information recording medium can be used. Further, the device driver information has been described as an example of the information stored in the non-volatile memory, but all information of the control program such as the OS of the host computer or application software used in the host computer, or
It is also effective to save some information and use it at startup.

It is also possible to save a part of the data recorded on the control software and the medium or the data of the application by dividing the area in the same non-volatile memory. Further, the selection means has been described by using the switch, but any means that realizes the same function may be used, and one that is realized by electronic means such as a logic circuit and processing on software is also within the scope of the present invention. Similarly, the fixing means is not limited to an independent switch, and can be realized by operating other switches such as a power switch and a disc eject switch and combining software.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the information recording / reproducing apparatus using the optical disk has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this, and a removable disk-shaped magnetic recording medium having the same shape, a card, Obviously, it can be applied to devices using other types of information recording media such as tapes.

[0039]

As described above, the present invention is an information recording / reproducing apparatus which is connected to a host controller which is a host computer and records / reproduces information on / from an information recording medium. It has a RAM for temporary storage for reproduction and a non-volatile memory as a non-volatile storage means, and transfers a part of the information to be stored in the information recording medium in advance to the non-volatile memory or the main memory of the host computer. By storing a part of the information to be stored, selecting the non-volatile memory and RAM and connecting to the host computer, the selection means and the selection means are controlled by the presence or absence of a disk, the host computer's command or a fixed means such as a switch. , When the system of the host computer is started, the information recording / reproducing device is not loaded with the information recording medium. But registering the device drivers and O
It becomes possible to transfer and register S, programs, etc., and the work and function of saving the device driver, OS, etc. in the system information in the system start-up device of the host computer in advance become unnecessary, and the information recording / reproducing device can be connected to It is possible to connect to the host computer and to use it from the host computer only by an extremely simple operation of electrically connecting to the host computer using, and the range of use of the apparatus can be expanded.

Further, a plurality of similar nonvolatile memories are provided,
By providing a switching means for switching the plurality of non-volatile storage means by a scanning means or the like which scans manually or sequentially according to the type of the host computer, the OS of the OS can be connected even when connecting to a plurality of types of host computers. The optical disk device can be brought into a usable state by only a very simple operation without being aware of the difference in type, which is very effective in further expanding the range of use.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an optical disk recording / reproducing apparatus according to first, second and third embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of a device driver registration procedure using the optical disc recording / reproducing apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram showing the arrangement of information on an optical disc.

FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram showing an arrangement of information on a nonvolatile memory of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a device driver registration procedure using the optical disc recording / reproducing apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a device driver registration procedure using the optical disc recording / reproducing apparatus according to the third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of an optical disk recording / reproducing apparatus according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of an optical disc recording / reproducing apparatus according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a conventional optical disc recording / reproducing apparatus.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of a device driver registration procedure using the optical disc recording / reproducing apparatus in the conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 optical disk 2 recording / reproducing head 3 disk motor 4 recording / reproducing head control section 5 signal processing section 6 device control section 6-1 CPU 6-2 RAM 6-3 ECC 6-4 control signal input / output section 6-5 ROM 6-6 Non-volatile memory 6-7 Selection switch 6-8 Fixed switch 7 Interface section 8 Host computer

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Seizo Tsuji 1006 Kadoma, Kadoma City, Osaka Prefecture Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. In Associates Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Michio Fujii 2-12-4 Higashi-Nihonbashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo Within MICC Associates Co., Ltd.

Claims (12)

[Claims] 1. An information recording / reproducing apparatus, which is connected to a host control device such as a host computer and records information on an information recording medium or reproduces information from the information recording medium, stores control software for controlling the information recording / reproducing apparatus. Control software storage means, control means for executing control software stored in the control software storage means, and temporary storage means for temporarily storing record information to be recorded on an information recording medium or information read from the information recording medium. And a selection means for selecting the non-volatile storage means, the temporary storage means and the non-volatile storage means and connecting to the host control device, and transferring the non-volatile storage means to the host control device in advance. An information recording / reproducing apparatus characterized by storing specific information to be stored. 2. A mounting detecting means for detecting mounting of the information recording medium, wherein the selecting means is controlled by the mounting detecting means, and when the information recording medium is mounted, a selection from a host controller is performed. Information read from the information storage medium in response to a read command is transferred from the temporary storage means, and when the information recording medium is not mounted, the nonvolatile storage means responds to a read command from the host device. The information recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the read information is transferred. 3. The upper control device, wherein the selecting device has a command control input to be switched by the upper control device, and the selecting device is controlled by a command of the upper control device to read information from the nonvolatile storage device or temporary storage device. The information recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein 4. A fixing means for fixing the selecting means to one side, and depending on the state of the fixing means, the information in the non-volatile storage means or the information from the temporary storage means is read out and transferred to the host controller. Claim 1 characterized by the above-mentioned.
Information recording / reproducing apparatus described. 5. The information recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a plurality of non-volatile storage means and a switching means for switching the plurality of non-volatile storage means. 6. The information recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the switching means is switched according to a command from a host controller. 7. The information recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 5, further comprising a designating unit for fixing the switching unit. 8. The information recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 5, further comprising a scanning unit for sequentially switching the switching unit. 9. The information recording according to claim 1, wherein the information stored in the non-volatile storage means is at least a part of the information to be stored in the information recording medium. Playback device. 10. The information recording, wherein the information stored in the non-volatile storage means is recognition information for recognizing and registering at least one or more of the information recording / reproducing devices in the upper control device. 10. The information recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information recording / reproducing apparatus is information to be stored in a medium. 11. Information stored in a non-volatile storage means is operating system software for a host controller,
10. The information recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information recording / reproducing apparatus is a program for controlling a host controller such as application software. 12. The information storage device according to claim 1, further comprising a rewriting device that rewrites information stored in the nonvolatile storage device, and the information stored in the nonvolatile storage device is rewritten with information stored in the information recording medium. Information recording / reproducing apparatus described.