JPH08212125A - Information recording method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To prevent previously a state that incomplete data remains on an optical card as valid data from being occurred. CONSTITUTION: Concerning the information recording method with which file data are successively recorded in a data recording area 10 of an optical card 1 and directory information for managing the file data is successively recorded in a directory recording area 20, when the recording capacity of the data recording area 10 is eliminated during the recording of additional file data, the directory information for managing these additional file data is recorded in the directory recording area 20 and afterwards, directory information equipped with information showing the invalidity of additional file data is recorded in the directory recording area 20. When the recording capacity of the data recording area 10 is eliminated during the recording of additional file data, the directory information for managing these file data is not recorded.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information recording method for recording information on an information recording medium, and more particularly to an information recording method suitable for recording information on an information recording medium which cannot be erased and rewritten.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as an information recording medium, a floppy disk or a magnetic hard disk for recording and reproducing by using magnetism, a card-like optical information recording medium for recording and reproducing by using light (hereinafter referred to as an optical card And a disk-shaped optical information recording medium (hereinafter referred to as an optical disc). Of these recording media,
Optical cards are expected to be used more and more in the future, taking advantage of their features such as ease of manufacture, portability, and accessibility. Also, some information recording media are erasable and non-erasable depending on the characteristics of the media, but optical cards are currently erasable and non-erasable in general, such as in the medical field. It is expected to be applied in fields where rewriting is not possible.

When managing data on such an information recording medium, auxiliary data for managing data in blocks, so-called directories, are used to store a large amount of data. The directory is usually
File name, file length,
File information such as the head data track number is included, and this is written in a part of the recording medium to manage the file of the data section. The optical card as described above, particularly the write-once optical card that cannot be erased and rewritten, has a large recording capacity even if it is about the size of a credit card. In order to manage it, a method of managing information using a directory is needed.

FIG. 4 is a schematic plan view showing an example of an optical card. The recording area of the optical card 1 is divided into a data recording area 10 and a directory recording area 20, and a plurality of data are recorded in the data recording area 10 as 10 ₁ , 10 ₂ ,.
It is recorded in order such as _n . On the other hand, in the directory recording area 20, a plurality of directories for managing a plurality of data are sequentially recorded, such as 20 ₁ , 20 ₂ , ... 20 _n . That is, the data is sequentially additionally recorded in the E direction in the unrecorded portion of the data recording area 10 following the already recorded data, and the directory is successively recorded in the unrecorded portion of the directory recording area 20 after the already recorded directory. Additional recording is performed sequentially in the D direction. A series of data are collectively handled as a file, and a directory is recorded for each file. The normal directory includes address information such as a file name of corresponding data and a head track number.

An information recording / reproducing apparatus (hereinafter, referred to as a drive) for recording or reproducing data or a directory on an optical card is a host controller (generally a host computer).
The recording / reproducing of information is performed based on a command (command) sent from the host controller. For example, when a data write command (recording command) is issued from the host controller, the final data (data 1 in the example of FIG.
When data is written next to 0 _n ) and a directory write command is issued, the directory is written next to the final directory (directory 20 _{n in} the example of FIG. 4). In a general file management method, the directory is generally recorded when the file is closed. That is, after the data is recorded in the file opened by the host controller, a directory recording command is issued to the drive when the file is closed,
This causes the drive to record the directory.

Further, when a data read command (playback command) is issued from the host controller, it is confirmed whether or not data exists in the designated data track,
If it exists, the data of the specified track is read out and transferred to the host controller. The host controller generally issues a read command for all directories on the optical card before reading the data. In this case, the drive reads all the directories on the optical card and transfers them to the host controller. Therefore, in the drive,
New data or directory following the already recorded data or directory (in the example of FIG. 4, data 10 _{n + 1} and directory 20 _{n + 1, respectively} )
In order to additionally record, it is necessary to detect the recording position of the final data or the final directory before additionally recording the data or the directory. As a method for detecting such final data and final directory, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No.
As proposed in Japanese Patent No. 43844, there is a method of detecting the data as the final data when a predetermined number of tracks in which the data is not recorded continuously from the track in which the data is recorded.

However, in such a detection method,
When the data 10 and the directory 20 are recorded in the opposite E and D directions, the optical card 1 is used until there is no track in which no data is recorded (called an unrecorded track) between the data 10 and the directory 20. Cannot be used. That is, since this detection method requires detection of a predetermined number of continuous unrecorded tracks, the data 10
When the number of unrecorded tracks between the directory and the directory 20 reaches a predetermined number, it must be assumed that the optical card is in a state where it cannot record any more (this is called a card full state). Therefore, when the above detection method is used, there is a problem that the directory for managing the file data cannot be recorded when the card full state is reached at the time when the recording of the file data is completed.

Therefore, the applicant of the present application has previously disclosed an information recording method that solves the above problems in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-266602. This information recording method sets the predetermined number of unrecorded tracks that is judged to be card full when recording a directory to a smaller value than the predetermined number of unrecorded tracks that is judged to be card full when recording data. It is characterized by doing. According to this information recording method, even if the card is full during data recording, that state is not card full for directory recording, so a directory for managing the last recorded file data is required. Can be recorded without.

On the other hand, in order to manage the data as a file, in addition to the directory information which is the identification information for distinguishing the file from other files, map information indicating the storage information of the file is required. That is, the file starts from which track of the information recording medium, a sector obtained by dividing the track into some units, or a cluster which is a management unit in which a plurality of sectors are collected, and which track (hereinafter referred to as the minimum in the specification) The recording unit and the management unit will be described as one track.) Stored information indicating the order in which they are arranged is required. Generally, this stored information is called a file allocation table (FAT). By using the directory and the FAT together, the identification information such as the file name and the head track number are FAT depending on the directory.
Since the stored information can be known respectively by, it is possible to perform efficient file management.

Incidentally, the FAT basically needs to be rewritten every time the stored information changes, that is, every time a new file is recorded or the file is updated. If the medium is erasable and rewritable, the FAT area may be prepared in a specific area on the medium, and when the stored information changes, the area may be rewritten to the latest information. However, in a medium such as an optical card that cannot be erased and rewritten, it is necessary to additionally record a new FAT each time the stored information changes, so there is a problem that the information capacity of the optical card cannot be used effectively. there were.

Therefore, the applicant of the present application has disclosed a file management method which solves such a problem in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-141867. That is, the file management method is
Data is recorded in the data section in order in predetermined recording units, a flag indicating addition of file data is provided in the directory for managing file data, and when additional data is recorded in an existing file, the data to be added is stored in another file. Is recorded in the data section, and the directory for managing the additional data file is recorded in the directory section with the flag incremented. Files with the same file name but different flags during reproduction are divided and recorded in the order of the flag numbers.
In the file management method for managing as one file, when the final recording unit of the file to which data is added when the additional data is recorded has an invalid data part, the valid data recorded in the final recording unit is read into the buffer memory, Data that should be newly added is sequentially recorded at the rear of the read data, and the files with the same file name but different flags but with a flag other than the maximum value during playback have the final recording unit area as an invalid recording unit area. It is a method of managing.

According to this file management method, since it is not necessary to record the FAT on the recording medium, even if the medium cannot be erased and rewritten, not only the information capacity of the medium can be effectively used but also data is added. The number of reproduction tracks of the file is smaller than that of the conventional file management method, and there are many excellent advantages that the reproduction time can be shortened.

[0013]

By the way, JP-A-4-
According to the file management method of Japanese Patent No. 141867, if the card becomes full when all append data is not recorded while appending data to an existing file, the drive is card full and cannot record any more data. The above error is notified to the host controller. However, the upper-level control device cannot help closing the file opened for appending, and therefore issues a directory recording command to the drive as the closing process.

In such a case, the above-mentioned JP-A-6-
If the final data of the optical card is detected by the method of Japanese Patent No. 266602, the directory can be recorded even if the data cannot be recorded in the card full state, so the directory is recorded on the optical card. for that reason,
A file to which data has been partially appended exists as a valid file on the optical card. This becomes a problem especially when a large amount of data of a certain amount is added, for example, when daily blood pressure is recorded on an optical card or when an address book is recorded. That is,
For example, when appending the date and time and blood pressure as a pair, the last data is recorded only as the date and time, or in the case of an address book, the last data could be recorded with the name but the address was not recorded. Things happen. It is preferable that such so-called incomplete data is not recorded at all, rather than being recorded in an incomplete form. However, in the past, such incomplete data remains as valid data. was there.

The present invention has been made in order to solve such a problem, and an object thereof is to provide an information recording method for preventing a situation in which incomplete data remains as valid data. It is in.

[0016]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to record file data in a data recording area of an information recording medium in order and to manage directory data in a directory recording area of the recording medium. In the information recording method for recording, when the recording capacity of the data recording area is exhausted during the recording of the additional file data, after the directory information for managing the additional file data is recorded in the directory recording area, This is achieved by an information recording method characterized by recording directory information having information indicating that the additional file data is invalid in the directory recording area.

Another object of the present invention is to record file data in order in a data recording area of an information recording medium, and
In the information recording method of sequentially recording the directory information for managing the file data in the directory recording area of the recording medium, when the recording capacity of the data recording area is exhausted during the recording of the additional file data, the additional file This is achieved by an information recording method characterized by not recording directory information for managing data.

[0018]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 schematically shows the recorded contents on an optical card, and is a diagram for explaining an embodiment of the information recording method of the present invention. FIG. 1A shows a state before the optical card is in a card full state, where 300 is a directory section and 300a is a data section. Directories 301 to 305 are recorded in the directory section 300, and data 301a to 305a are recorded in the data section 300a. Also, A, B, and C indicate file names, and the numbers in parentheses indicate append flags. For example, regarding the data of file name A, the directory 30
As is clear from Nos. 1, 304, and 305, the file with the file name A additionally records the first data A (1) twice, that is, data A (2) and data A (3). These are called additional data files. That is, the data of the file A is divided and recorded in three parts. No additional data is recorded in the files with file names B and C.

In the information recording method of this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 4, the data and the directory are successively recorded on the optical card in a predetermined recording unit continuously from the opposite direction of the optical card. . In addition, as shown in FIG. 1, the recording area of the optical card is not such that the areas of the data portion and the directory portion are actually determined in advance, and the area is variably determined according to the recording state. In FIG. 1, the area is fixed and shown for simplicity.

FIG. 1B shows a state in which additional recording is made on the optical card from the state of FIG. 1A so that the recording area of the data portion is lost, that is, the card is full.
In FIG. 1B, data A indicated by data 306a
(4) is normally recorded after the data 305a, and the directory 306 (directory A (4)) for managing this data A (4) is recorded after the directory 305. At this point, the card is not yet full. Next, the data A indicated by the data 307a
Although (5) is additionally written, this means that the recording area of the data portion 300a was lost during the recording and only a part of the recording area could be recorded. That is, it indicates that the card is in a full state during the recording of the data A (5) and the data A (5) ends in an incomplete recording state.

In the present embodiment, in this case, the directory 307 (directory A (5)) for temporarily managing the additional data file A (5) is added to the directory section 30.
After recording to 0, the directory 30 having information indicating logical deletion or invalidation of this additional data file
8 (directory A (I)) is recorded. In this embodiment, as a method of detecting the final data of the optical card,
As described above, a predetermined unrecorded area that determines that the recording area of the medium has run out when recording a directory, rather than a predetermined number of unrecorded tracks between the data section and the directory section that determines that the recording area of the medium has run out. Since the number of tracks is set to a small value, even if the recording area of the data section is lost, the directory can be recorded without fail.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram for reproducing the directory of the optical card recorded as described above. Figure 2
1A shows the directory information recorded on the optical card, which is in the same state as FIG. 1B. When the optical card is inserted into the information recording / reproducing apparatus (not shown), the directory sections 301 to 308 are reproduced, and all or the directory information of the directory section is required in the memory or the auxiliary storage device connected to the information recording / reproducing apparatus. A part (the directories 301 to 308 in this embodiment) is read.

FIG. 2B shows directories 301 to 307.
Shows the storage state of the memory or the auxiliary storage device when is read. When the directory 308 is read, this directory 308 is an additional data file A managed by the directory 307 read immediately before that.
Since (5) is a directory that has been logically deleted or is invalid, the information of the directory 307 that has already been read into the memory or the auxiliary recording device is deleted from the storage. As a result, the directory unit 30
The directory of 0 is as shown in FIG. 2C, and the file A (5) is logically deleted, so that the file A is composed of the data A (1) to A (4).

In FIGS. 1 and 2, in order to simplify the drawing, the same description form (shown in parentheses) as the append flag is used as information indicating logical deletion or invalidity of the additional data file. However, many modifications other than the method used in the examples are conceivable. For example, a portion indicating the information may be provided at a portion different from the append flag in the directory information. Whatever method is used, if it is interpreted at the time of reproduction as a logical deletion of the additional data file managed by the directory read immediately before it, or an indication of invalidity, it does not impair the effect of the present invention. It is possible to obtain the same effect. Further, in this embodiment, in order to simplify the description,
Although it has been described that there is no invalid data in the file data, it goes without saying that the information recording method of the present invention can be applied even when there is invalid data.

Next, another embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 3 schematically shows the recorded contents on the optical card, and is a diagram for explaining the information recording method of the present embodiment. FIG. 3A shows a state before the optical card is in a card full state, where 300 is a directory section and 300a is a data section. Directories 301 to 305 are recorded in the directory section 300, and data 301a to 305a are recorded in the data section 300a. Also,
A, B, and C indicate the file name, and the numbers in parentheses indicate the append flag. For example, looking at the data of the file name A, as can be seen from the directories 301, 304, and 305, the file with the file name A Two additional recordings, that is, data A (2) and data A (3) are additionally recorded in the first data A (1). These are called additional data files. That is, the data of the file A is divided and recorded in three parts. No data is added to the files having the file names B and C.

Also in this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 4, the data and the directory are sequentially recorded in a predetermined recording unit from the opposite direction of the optical card. In addition, as shown in FIG. 3, the areas of the data section and the directory section are not predetermined in practice, and the areas are variably determined according to the recording state. The area is shown fixed.

FIG. 3B shows a state where the optical card in the state shown in FIG. 3A is additionally recorded and the recording area of the data section 300a is lost, that is, the card is full. In FIG. 3B, data A (4) indicated by data 306a is normally recorded after data 305a, and a directory 306 for managing this data A (4) is stored.
Directory A (4) is recorded in the directory section. At this point in time, the card is not in the full state, but the data A (5) of the data 307a is further recorded after the data 306a, and the recording area of the data part is lost during the recording. Therefore, the data 307
“A” is the one that could be recorded only partially. That is, the card full state is reached during the recording of the data A (5), and the data A (5) ends in an incomplete recording state. In such a case, in the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 3B, for the data in which the recording area of the data portion is lost during recording, the directory for managing the data is not recorded and recording is terminated.

Also in the present embodiment, when recording data, the medium is recorded when the directory is recorded more than the predetermined number of unrecorded tracks between the data portion and the directory portion, which is determined to be full of the recording area of the medium. Since the predetermined number of unrecorded tracks for judging that the recording area has been exhausted is set to a small value, the directory can always be recorded even when the recording area of the data part is exhausted. However, in this embodiment, if the card becomes full while recording the additional data file, the additional data file A
The directory managing (5) is not recorded.

Here, in this embodiment, when an optical card is inserted into an information recording / reproducing apparatus (not shown), the directory sections 301 to 306 are reproduced, and a memory or an auxiliary storage device connected to the information recording / reproducing apparatus. All or part of the directory information in the directory section (directories 301 to 306 in this embodiment) is read. After that, file management is performed based on the directory information. At this time, since the directory for managing the incomplete additional data file A (5) is not recorded on the optical card, the file A contains the data A (1) to A (5).
The data A (5) managed as constituted by (4) and ended in an incomplete recording state is not managed as file data and can be invalid data.

In this embodiment, for the sake of simplicity of explanation, the file data is described as having no invalid data, but it goes without saying that the present invention can be applied to the case where there is invalid data.

[0031]

As described above, according to the present invention, when the recording area of the data portion runs out during the additional recording of the file data, the directory having the information indicating the deletion or invalidation of the additional data is recorded. By this, even if a file to which data has been added halfway is physically recorded on the card, that data is logically managed as invalid data, and as a result, it was possible to append only halfway. There was no additional record,
It is possible to prevent the situation of managing incomplete data as valid data.

Further, when the recording area of the data section runs out during the additional recording of the file data, the data is managed as logically invalid data by not recording the directory for managing the data. It is possible to prevent incomplete data from being managed as valid data.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining an embodiment of an information recording method of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining an operation at the time of reproducing a directory recorded by the method of FIG.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory view showing another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic plan view showing an example of an optical card.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 optical card 300 directory part 300a data part 301-308 directory 301a-307a data

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An information recording method for recording file data in order in a data recording area of an information recording medium and recording directory information for managing the file data in order in a directory recording area of the recording medium. If the recording capacity of the data recording area runs out during data recording, it indicates that the additional file data is invalid after the directory information for managing the additional file data is recorded in the directory recording area. An information recording method comprising recording directory information having information in the directory recording area. 2. An information recording method for recording file data in order in a data recording area of an information recording medium and for recording directory information for managing the file data in order in a directory recording area of the recording medium. An information recording method, wherein directory information for managing the additional file data is not recorded when the recording capacity of the data recording area is exhausted during data recording. 3. The information recording method according to claim 1, wherein the file data and the directory information are recorded in a predetermined recording unit in order from a direction in which the recording medium faces each other. When detecting the remaining recording capacity, it is determined that the recording area of the recording medium is exhausted when recording file data.When recording directory information more than the predetermined number of unrecorded tracks between the data recording area and the directory recording area. An information recording method, characterized in that a predetermined number of unrecorded tracks for determining that the recording area is exhausted is set to a small value. 4. The information recording method according to claim 1, wherein the directory information includes a flag indicating addition of file data, and when the data is additionally recorded in an existing file, the addition is performed. The data to be recorded is recorded as a separate file in the data recording area, and the directory information for managing the file data is recorded by incrementing the flag. The files having the same file name but different flags are flag numbers. An information recording method characterized in that the information is managed as one file which is divided and recorded in order.