JPH11203773A - Data storage device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To effectively make two interfaces operatable respectively by providing an interface for existing floppy disks and an interface for large-capacity floppy disks having compativility with the existing floppy disks for the disk driving device of one set. SOLUTION: A disk kind discriminating circuit 17 discriminates the kind of the disk loaded in this device to transmit the discriminated result to a control part 15. The control part 15 performs a control so as to make an interface corresponding to the kind of the loaded disk perform a recording and reproducing operation in accordance with an access and to make an interface corresponding to the kind of a disk which is not loaded return a response that a disk is not present to a host computer by controlling an FDD interface 25 being the interface for the existing floppy disks and an IDE interface 36 being the interface for the large-capacity floppy disks according to the discriminated result.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a data storage device, and more particularly, to a data storage device to which a plurality of types of recording media can be attached and detached.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, a data storage device such as a floppy disk drive used as a computer peripheral device has only one interface with a host computer.

For example, a conventional floppy disk drive for driving a conventional 3.5-inch floppy disk having a storage capacity of 1 megabyte or 2 megabytes is a so-called F disk drive.
It has a DD (Floppy Disk Drive) interface and communicates with the host computer via this FDD interface.

An FCD (Floppy Disk Controller) for controlling a floppy disk drive via an FDD interface is built in the host computer. This FDD interface is suitable for cost reduction by suppressing the data transfer speed and control functions. In addition, a system file is stored in a conventional 3.5-inch floppy disk, and a 3.5-inch floppy disk in which the system file is stored is mounted on a floppy disk drive before the host computer is started. The host computer can be started based on a system file stored on a 3.5-inch floppy disk.

[0005] In addition to the floppy disk drive, a CD-ROM drive or the like is connected to the host computer via a more intelligent interface other than the FDD interface, such as an IDE (Intelligent Drive Electronics) interface. However, it is configured such that the host computer cannot be started up by a device connected other than the FDD interface.

[0006]

However, the conventional 3.
A large-capacity floppy disk drive with a larger storage capacity than a 5-inch floppy disk and a high transfer rate is desired.

Here, since the conventional 3.5-inch floppy disk is widely used all over the world, this large-capacity floppy disk drive is not limited to the conventional large-capacity floppy disk, but is also used for the 3.5-inch floppy disk. It is desirable that an inch floppy disk can be used. further,
Since a conventional 3.5-inch floppy disk can be used, the large-capacity floppy disk drive has a conventional FDD interface and starts up the host computer based on a system file recorded on the conventional 3.5-inch floppy disk. It is preferred to be able to raise. For large-capacity floppy disks, FDD, which is intelligent and has a high transfer rate,
It is desirable to use an interface other than the interface.

Therefore, the present invention has been proposed for the purpose of providing a data storage device which can communicate with a host computer without any problem even if it has a plurality of interfaces.

[0009]

In order to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems and achieve the above object, the present invention provides a data storage device in which one of a plurality of types of recording media is detachably mounted. A plurality of interfaces respectively provided for each type of recording medium and connected to an external control device; a judging unit for judging the type of the mounted recording medium; When a command is supplied from the device, it is determined whether or not the type of the interface and the type of the mounted recording medium match.If the type matches, the operation according to the command is performed. And control means for transmitting information indicating that the external control device is not present to the external control device via the interface.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, a specific configuration of a data storage device according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

A disk drive device 10 constructed as shown in FIG. 1 which constitutes a data storage device according to the present invention has at least two types of floppy disks 1A as shown in FIGS. 1B is used. FIG. 2A shows a floppy disk 1A containing a disk medium 2A having a large recording capacity and a high recording density (upper mode), and FIG.
1 shows a floppy disk 1B containing a disk medium 2A of a standard recording density (lower mode) having a recording capacity of about one byte. 2A and 2B, the write protectors 5A and 5B indicate a writable state when the hole is closed and a write-protected state when the hole is opened. The hole 6 in B of FIG.
B is shown. Further, in FIG. 2A, a hole 7 provided at a predetermined position other than the write protector 5A and the hole 6 of FIG. 2B indicates that the floppy disk 1A is of a high recording density upper mode.

In order to identify the large-capacity upper mode floppy disk described above, a hole 7 as shown in FIG.
3 may be provided, as shown in FIG. 3, and in addition, the presence or absence of a notch, a difference in reflectance,
May be used. Further, when a plurality of upper modes are defined by, for example, a difference in recording capacity or the like, a plurality of types of upper modes may be identified by a combination of a plurality of holes.

FIG. 1 shows a magnetic head 11 for recording and reproducing deltas on the floppy disk 1A or 1B.
As shown in the figure, a head chip 12 for the lower mode floppy disk 1B and a head chip 13 for the upper mode floppy disk 1A are incorporated. The motor 14 drives the floppy disks 1A and 1B to rotate. The control unit 15 controls the operation of the entire disk drive, such as the rotational drive control of the motor 14 and the movement control of the magnetic head 11, and controls the motor in accordance with a mode signal indicating an upper mode or a lower mode described later. The control section 14 controls the switching of the rotation speed, the switching of the recording / reproducing circuit section, and the switching of the interface. Floppy disk 1
A detection unit 16 for mechanically and optically detecting the types of A and 1B
Is sent to the control unit 15 as a mode signal via the disc type discriminating circuit 17. Whether or not the floppy disk 1A or 1B is mounted can be confirmed based on whether or not the mode signal is sent to the control unit 15.

A recording / reproducing system connected to the lower mode head chip 12 includes an amplifier circuit 21 and a modulation / demodulation circuit 2.
2. A head chip 1 for an upper mode including a formatting / format decomposing circuit 23, an error processing circuit 24, a buffer memory 25, and an FDD interface 26.
The recording / reproducing system connected to 3 includes an amplification circuit 31, a modulation / demodulation circuit 32, a formatting / format decomposing circuit 33, an error processing circuit 34, a buffer memory 35, and an ID.
An E interface 36 is provided.

Next, the disk drive 1 according to the present invention
An example of the configuration of a computer system to which 0 is connected will be described with reference to FIG.

As shown in FIG. 4, the host computer 100 includes a CPU 70, a ROM 82, a RAM 74, an FDC
75, an HDD (hard disk drive) 85 having an FDD interface 76, an IDE interface 77, a SCSI interface 78, an IDE interface 83, and an IDE interface 84, which are connected via a bus 71.

The ROM 82 has a BIOS (Basic Basic).
Input / OutPut Syatem) 79, Bootstrap loader 7
3 is included.

The SCSI interface 78 includes a SCSI interface 81 of the SCSI device 80.
The FDD interface 76 is connected to the FDD interface 10 of the disk drive device 10, and the IDE interface 77 is connected to the IDE interface 36 of the disk drive device 10.

In the system as shown in FIG. 4, when starting up the system such as when the power of the host computer 100 is turned on or reset, the CPU 70 operates based on the BIOS 79 to check the connection of the external storage device. It operates based on the bootstrap loader 73 in the startup ROM 72 and loads system files from a floppy disk or hard disk.

The operation of the CPU 70 when starting up the system will be described.

First, when the host computer 100 is started, the CPU 70 operates based on the BIOS 79 in FIG. 4, and the CPU 70 performs a reliability test such as a memory check and an initialization process. After that, the startup ROM 72
CPU to the bootstrap loader 73 stored in the
70 control is transferred. Then, the CPU 70 operates based on the bootstrap loader 73 and performs the bootstrap processing shown in FIG.

First, the CPU 70 executes the operation of the strap S91.
To determine whether or not the FDD 10 is connected.
In the case of S, the process proceeds to step S92, and in the case of NO, the process proceeds to step S96. In the step S92, the CPU 70
Determines whether or not the floppy disk 1A or 1B is mounted on the basis of the supply of the mode signal from the disk type determination circuit 17. That is, the CPU 70 outputs the mode signal to the control unit 15 and the FDD interface 2.
6, 76, when supplied via the CPU bus 71,
It is determined that the floppy disk 1A or 1B is mounted, and the process proceeds to step S93. If the mode signal is not supplied, it is determined that the floppy disk 1A or 1B is not mounted, and the process proceeds to step S96.

Then, in step S93, the CPU
70 determines whether or not boot is possible based on information stored in the floppy disk 1A or 1B mounted on the FDD 10. That is, the FDD 10 is mounted on the conventional floppy disk 1B, and when the system file is recorded on the floppy disk 1B, the CPU 70 determines that the boot is possible. CP
U70 indicates that the system file is a floppy disk 1B
Whether or not the data is recorded on the floppy disk 1B is determined by controlling the magnetic head 11 via the FDC 75, the FDD interfaces 76 and 26, and the control unit 15 so that the information is read from a predetermined recording position of the floppy disk 1B. Is determined by taking in the information once stored in the FDD via the FDD interface 26 and the like.

When the system file is recorded on the floppy disk 1B, the CPU 70 proceeds to step S97, proceeds to step S94, and sends an instruction to read the system file from the floppy disk 1B to the FDD 10 via the FDD interface 76. send. Thus, the system file read from the floppy disk 1B is stored in the FDD interface 7
6 to the host computer 100, and
Taken into M74. Then, the CPU 70 shifts from the operation based on the bootstrap loader 73 to the operation based on the system file incorporated in the RAM 74.

If no system file is recorded on the floppy disk 1B, the CPU 70 proceeds to step S95 and displays on the monitor (not shown) that the disk is not a system disk.

When the CPU 70 determines in step S91 that the FDD 10 is not connected,
Then, in step S92, the floppy disk 1A or 1
When it is determined that B is not attached to the FDD 10,
The process proceeds to step S96 to determine whether or not the HDD 85 is connected. If the HDD 85 is connected, the process proceeds to step S97. If the HDD 85 is not connected, the process proceeds to step S100. At this time, the system is not started.

Further, when proceeding to step S97, the CPU 70 determines whether or not booting is possible. That is,
It is determined whether or not a system file is recorded on a hard disk (not shown) of the HDD 85. And
When the system file has been recorded, the CPU 70 proceeds to step S98, loads the system file from the hard disk into the RAM 74, and thereafter, the CPU 70 operates based on the system file.
If no system file is recorded on the hard disk in step S97 and booting is not possible,
The PU 70 proceeds to S99 and displays on a monitor (not shown) that there is no system.

Here, instead of the above-mentioned IDE interface, an E (Extended) IDE interface, SCSI, IEEE (IEEE) is used instead of the above-mentioned IDE interface as a high recording density of the disk drive device shown in FIG. Institute of Electrical
and Electronics Engineers) An interface of the 1394 standard may be used.

In the disk drive device 10 of FIG. 1 having compatibility with the floppy disk 1A in the upper mode and the floppy disk 1B in the lower mode, for example, when recording / reproducing on the floppy disk 1B in the lower mode When an access request for recording and reproduction is issued from the external host computer 100 to the FDDIF 26, the presence or absence of the lower mode floppy disk 1B is determined by a procedure described later. Recording of data from the disk 100 and reproduction of data from the floppy disk 1B are performed.

Specifically, at the time of recording, the data is FDDI
The data is stored in the buffer memory 25 via the F26, the data from the buffer memory 25 is sent to the error processing circuit 24, where a CRC or the like is generated and added, and the data is sent to the formatting / format disassembling circuit 23, and the existing floppy disk 1B Is converted into data in a format having a sector structure suitable for recording. The formatted data is sent to the modulation / demodulation circuit 22 and subjected to digital modulation, for example, MFM (Modified Freguensy Modulation), amplified by the amplifier circuit 21 and supplied to the head chip 12 for the lower mode. It is recorded on the floppy disk 1B.

At the time of reproduction, contrary to the above-described recording, data reproduced from the floppy disk 1B by the head chip 12 is amplified by the amplifier circuit 21, digitally demodulated by the modulation / demodulation circuit 22, and formatted. The data is format-decomposed by a conversion / format decomposition circuit 23, subjected to an error check and the like by an error processing circuit 24, and sent to the host computer 100 via the buffer memory 25 and the FDDIF 26.

Next, the upper mode floppy disk 1
When performing recording / reproduction on A, an external host computer 100 issues an access request for recording / reproduction to the IDEIF 36, and the presence or absence of the upper mode floppy disk 1A is determined by a procedure described later.
When it is determined that the upper mode floppy disk 1A is present, data from the host computer 100 is recorded on the floppy disk 1A or the floppy disk 1A is recorded.
The reproduction of the data recorded in A is performed.

Specifically, at the time of recording, the data is
The data is stored in the buffer memory 35 via the F36, the data from the buffer memory 35 is sent to the error processing circuit 34, and a parity, an error correction code and the like are generated and added. The data from the error processing circuit 34 is sent to the formatting / decomposing circuit 33, and is converted into data having a sector structure suitable for recording on the floppy disk 1A in the upper mode. The formatted data is sent to the modulation / demodulation circuit 32, subjected to digital modulation, for example, MFM, amplified by the amplifier circuit 31, supplied to the head chip 13 for the upper mode, and recorded on the floppy disk 1A. Is done.

At the time of reproduction, contrary to the recording, data reproduced from the floppy disk 1A by the head chip 13 is amplified by the amplifier circuit 31, digitally demodulated by the modulation / demodulation circuit 32, and formatted / formatted. The format is decomposed by the decomposing circuit 33, subjected to processing such as error correction by the error processing circuit 34, and sent to the host computer 100 via the buffer memory 35 and the IDEIF 36.

Here, the floppy disk 1A or 1B
1 is inserted into the disk drive device of FIG. 1, the detection unit 16 detects the presence or absence of the hole 7 shown in FIG. 2, for example, and the disk type discriminating circuit 17 detects the upper mode floppy disk 1A or the lower mode floppy disk 1A. The discrimination as to the disc 1B is performed, and the discrimination result is sent to the control unit 15 as a mode signal. The control unit 15 selects either the IDEIF 36 or the FDDIF 26 based on the mode signal.

On the other hand, the host computer 100 can make an access request to any one of a plurality of interfaces prepared in the disk drive device 10. That is, an access request from the host computer 100 can occur to the disk drive device 10 without knowing which of the floppy disks 1A and 1B is actually mounted in the disk drive device. In this case, the disk drive device 10 must respond to the request from the host computer 100 regardless of the interface. That is, the disk drive device 10 performs data recording / reproduction on an interface accessible by inserting the floppy disk 1A or 1B, and confirms that there is no corresponding floppy disk in response to a request for an invalid interface. Host computer 1
00 will be responded to.

An operation procedure in the control unit 15 for performing such control will be described with reference to FIGS. 6, 7 and 8.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart for explaining the operation for confirming the presence / absence of a disk and determining the type.

It is assumed that the control unit 15 performs the operation shown in FIG. 6 every predetermined time. In FIG. 6, first,
In step S41, the control unit 15 determines whether the floppy disk 1A or 1B has been inserted, and
If S, the process proceeds to step S42. If NO, the process proceeds to step S45. Specifically, when the mode signal is supplied from the disc type determination circuit 17, the control unit 15
It is determined that the floppy disk 1A or 1B has been inserted.

Next, when proceeding to step S45, the control section 15 sets the flags A and B to 0. When the process proceeds to step S42, the control unit 15 determines whether or not the inserted is the upper mode floppy disk 1A. In the case of the floppy disk 1A in the upper mode, the control unit 15 proceeds to step S43, and sets the flag B to 0. In the case of the lower mode floppy disk 1B, the control unit 15 proceeds to step S44, and sets the flag A to 0 and the flag B to 1.

Next, FIG. 7 shows the host computer 100.
To IDEIF3 which is the interface of upper mode
6 is a flowchart for explaining an operation of the control unit 15 when an access request is made to the control unit 6; That is,
6 is a flowchart showing an operation performed by the control unit 15 when a commander indicating an access request from the host computer 100 is supplied to the control unit 15 via the FDDIF 26. When there is an access request to the upper mode floppy disk 1A, first, in step S51, the controller 15 determines whether or not the flag A indicating that the upper mode floppy disk 1A is present is 1; Proceeding to S52, a recording / reproducing operation according to the access request to the disk 1A is performed. That is,
The control unit 15 controls the motor 14 and the head chip 13 for the upper mode so as to perform the recording / reproducing process according to the access request.
And so on. On the other hand, when NO is determined in the step S51, the control unit 15 proceeds to a step S53, notifies the IDEIF 36 that there is no floppy disk 1A as a recording medium, and sends a response to the host computer 100. Let

Next, FIG. 8 shows the host computer 100.
To FDDIF2 which is the lower mode interface
6 is a flowchart for explaining an operation of the control unit 15 when an access request is made to the control unit 6; At this time,
First, in step S61, the control unit 15 determines whether or not a flag B indicating that there is a floppy disk 1B in the lower mode is 1; if YES, the process proceeds to step S62 to respond to an access request to the disk 1B. Recording and reproducing operation. That is, the control unit 15 controls the motor 14, the lower mode head chip 12, and the like so as to perform the recording / reproducing process according to the access request. Step S61
If NO is determined in step S, the control unit 15 proceeds to step S
Proceeding to 63, it notifies the FDDIF 26 that there is no media (floppy disk 1B) and causes the host computer 100 to respond. As a response in this case, a message such as "no disk" or "disk not ready" is sent to the host computer 10.
Display on the monitor on the 0 side.

As described above, the data storage device according to the present invention uses the FDDIF 26 which is an interface for an existing 3.5-inch micro floppy disk or the like.
IDEIF3 which is an interface suitable for a floppy disk having a recording capacity of about several tens to several hundreds of Mbytes.
6 can be used in the same disk drive device 10,
The control unit 15 monitors the presence or absence and types of the floppy disks 1A and 1B, and centrally controls the correspondence to the interface according to the monitoring. Only those interfaces corresponding to the recognized and inserted floppy disks 1A and 1B are determined to have a disk, and the other interfaces are returned with no disk.

Therefore, the connection with the disk drive device 10 supporting a plurality of formats can be performed without changing the control system from the host computer 100.
Further, since the disk type is automatically identified, operations other than insertion of the floppy disks 1A and 1B are unnecessary, and the operation is simple. Further, in response to a request from the host computer 100, even when the floppy disks 1A and 1B of the requested type are not inserted, a response indicating that there is no disk is given, so that misrecognition hardly occurs and operability is improved. You.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above-described example, and may be applied to, for example, a disk drive device that handles a floppy disk other than a 3.5-inch floppy disk, or another data storage device. is there.

[0046]

As described above, the data storage device according to the present invention is provided with a plurality of types of interfaces respectively corresponding to a plurality of types of recording media, discriminates the type of the mounted recording medium, and determines the discrimination result. The operation and response of each interface are automatically switched according to the installed recording medium by controlling the operation of the corresponding interface among the plurality of types of interfaces according to the above, so that access from the host computer can be performed. Appropriate processing can be performed accordingly.

Further, according to the discrimination result of the loaded recording medium, a normal operation is performed for the interface where the recording medium is present, and a response without the medium is performed for the interface where the recording medium is not present. This allows the host computer to perform the same operation as when a data storage device corresponding to each interface is connected. In particular, when an access request is supplied from the host to an interface corresponding to a recording medium of a type different from the actually mounted recording medium, a response indicating that there is no medium is returned to the host. It is possible to use one data storage device as a plurality of devices without imposing any burden on the user.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a disk drive device constituting the present invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a large-capacity floppy disk and an existing floppy disk.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing another example of a large-capacity floppy disk.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a configuration on a computer side.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining an operation of confirming the presence / absence of a disk and determining the type;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a bootstrap process performed when the computer starts up the system.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating an operation when an access request is made to a large-capacity floppy disk.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart for explaining an operation when an access request is made to an existing floppy disk.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 floppy disk, 1A large capacity floppy disk, 1B existing floppy disk, 11
Magnetic head, 15 control unit, 16 detection unit, 17
Disc type discriminating circuit, 21, 31 amplifying circuit,
22, 32 formatting / formatting decomposition circuit,
24, 34 error processing circuit, 25, 35 buffer memory, 26 FDDIF, 36 IDEIF,
100 host computers.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A data storage device in which one of a plurality of types of recording media is removably mounted, a plurality of interfaces provided for each type of recording medium and connected to an external control device, Determining means for determining the type of recording medium that has been set, and determining whether the interface and the type of the mounted recording medium match when a command is supplied from the external control device via one of the interfaces. Discriminating and performing an operation in accordance with the command when they match with each other, and transmitting information indicating that the recording medium is not mounted to the external control device via the interface when the matches do not match. Data storage device. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of interfaces are FDD.
The data storage device according to claim 1, further comprising an interface. 3. The data storage device according to claim 2, wherein said plurality of interfaces further include an IDE interface.