RECORDING MEDIA, AND METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR REFORMING THE SAME DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a recording measurement, and a method and apparatus for reformatting the recording medium, and more particularly, to a method for reformatting an area. of specific handling contained in the recording medium. Generally, an optical disc has been widely used which acts as a recording medium capable of recording a large amount of data therein. Particularly, a high density optical recording medium capable of recording / storing high quality video data and high quality audio data for a long period of time, for example, a Blu-ray disc (BD), has recently been developed. . The BD that acts as the next generation recording medium has been considered to be the next generation optical recording solution capable of recording / storing much more data than a conventional DVD. In recent times, the international standard technical specification associated with the BD has been established along with those other digital devices. Although many developers have taken intensive research towards the introduction of a PAC (Physical Access Control) area into the BD technical standard, the technical standard for BD still
It has not been established, so the developers have difficulty developing the complete optical recording / playback device. Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a recording medium, and a method and apparatus for reformatting the recording medium that substantially obviates one or more problems due to limitations and disadvantages of the related art. An object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for recording PAC information in a recording medium, and reformatting the recording medium in a recording unit base. Advantages, objects, and additional features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description that follows and in part will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned from the practice of the invention. . The objects and other advantages of the invention can be realized and obtained by the structure particularly indicated in the description written in the claims thereof, as well as the attached drawings. To achieve these objects and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the invention, as widely represented and described herein, a method for reformatting a recording medium includes the steps of (a)
reading a plurality of physical access control information of the recording medium in a plurality of recording units, and (b) performing an initialization process for each recording unit with the receipt of a reformat command associated with the plurality of units of recording, where the initialization process is performed differently according to an attribute of the information recorded in each recording unit. In another aspect of the present invention, a method for reformatting a recording medium includes the steps of (a) recognizing the type information of a PAC (Physical Access Control) allocation unit using the PAC_ID information contained in each unit of PAC assignment of a PAC area, (b) if the PAC_ID information is indicative of a PAC non-primary allocation unit, change the PAC status information and the PAC_ID information to other information during a reformatting operation, and (c) if the PAC_ID information is indicative of a primary PAC allocation unit, maintain the PAC status information and the PAC_ID information during the reformatting operation. In another aspect of the present invention, a method for reformatting a recording medium includes the steps of
(a) recognize the type information of a PAC allocation unit (Physical Access Control) using the
PAC_ID information contained in each PAC allocation unit of a PAC area, (b) if PAC_ID information is indicative of a non-primary PAC allocation unit, change the PAC status information and the PAC_ID information in another information during a reformatting operation, and initialize all information contained in the PAC allocation unit, and (c) if the PAC_ID information is indicative of a PAC primary allocation unit, maintain the PAC status information and the PAC_ID information during the reformatting operation. In another aspect of the present invention, an apparatus for reformatting a recording medium includes a driver for generating a request for reformatting the recording medium, and a recording / reproduction unit for reformatting the recording medium upon receipt of the request for recording. reformatting from the controller, recognizing the type information of a PAC allocation unit using the PAC_ID information contained in each PAC allocation unit (Physical Access Control), changing the PAC status information and the PAC_ID information in other information during a reformatting operation when the PAC_ID information is indicative of a non-primary PAC allocation unit, and maintain the PAC status information and the PAC_ID information without any changes during the reformatting operation when the information from
PAC_ID is indicative of a PAC primary allocation unit. In a further aspect of the present invention, an apparatus for reformatting a recording medium includes a driver for generating a request for reformatting the recording medium, and a recording / playback unit for reformatting the recording medium upon receipt of the request of the controller reformat, recognize the type information of a PAC allocation unit using the PAC_ID information contained in each PAC allocation unit (Physical Access Control), initialize the PAC status information, the PAC_ID information and all the information contained in the PAC allocation unit during a reformatting operation when the PAC_ID information is indicative of a non-primary PAC allocation unit, and maintaining the PAC status information and the PAC_ID information without any changes during the reformatting operation when the PAC_ID information is indicative of an allocation unit primary school. It will be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description of the present invention are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide a further explanation of the invention as claimed. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this application, illustrate the embodiments of the invention and together with the description serve to explain the principle of the invention. In the drawings: FIGURE 1 shows a physical structure of a recording medium according to the present invention; FIGURE 2 shows information contained in a PAC mapping unit of the recording medium according to the present invention; FIGURE 3 is a block diagram illustrating an optical recording / reproducing apparatus according to the present invention; and FIGURES 4 and 5 are flow charts illustrating a method for reformatting the recording medium according to the present invention. Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Whenever possible, the same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or similar parts. Before describing the present invention, it should be noted that most of the terms described in
present invention correspond to general terms well known in the art, but some terms have been selected when necessary and after that they will be described in the following description of the present invention. Therefore, it is preferable that the defined terms be understood on the basis of their meanings in the present invention. A recording medium for use in the present invention is indicative of all recordable media, for example, an optical disk, a magnetic disk and a magnetic tape, etc. For convenience of description and better understanding of the present invention, the optical disk afterwards will be used in exemplary manner as the above-mentioned recording medium in the present invention. The term "reformatting" is indicative of a process for re-initializing the format information of the recording medium due to a specific cause generated while the recording medium such as a rewritable optical disc is used. Particularly, although the reformatting operation must be performed only when a permissible reformatting condition has been provided to be able to protect old data recorded in the danger recording medium, the present invention first assumes that the admissible reformatting condition has been provided, and will describe a
method for reformatting a specific management area (e.g., a PAC area) of the recording medium under the above assumption. The term "PAC" is indicative of a process for controlling a physical access of a recording medium. For example, the PAC area contained in the recording medium is indicative of a specific area in which the control information associated with PAC is recorded, a PAC allocation unit is indicative of a simple recording unit contained in the area of PAC, and a detailed description thereof will be given thereafter with reference to FIGURES 1 and 2. FIGURE 1 shows a physical structure of a recording medium according to the present invention. For example, an optical disc that serves as the recording medium includes a data area for recording desired user data and an input area for recording a variety of information capable of handling the disc. The entrance area is contained in an interior area of the disk. One end of the entrance area includes an area of
PAC The PAC area includes a plurality of recording units, for example, n PAC allocation units (PAC allocation unit 1 ~ PAC allocation unit n). In other words, a single unit of allocation of
PAC includes PAC information for each disk. Detailed information contained in the PAC allocation unit will be described after this in the following description. Although only one PAC area contained in the disk is exemplarily shown in FIGURE 1, it should be noted that this example is provided for convenience of description. For example, if the recording medium includes two PAC areas, the same information is recorded in the two PAC areas, so that the information recorded in the PAC areas can be more reliably protected from damage. Generally, the entry area includes a DMA (Defect Management Area) to handle a disk defect and a general management function. The DMA records a DDS (Disc Definition Structure) of the same. The status information indicative of a state of each PAC allocation unit contained in the aforementioned PAC area is recorded in the DDS. For example, two bits are assigned to each PAC allocation unit, such that they are capable of indicating the status information of each PAC allocation unit. For example, if the status information of a PAC allocation unit is a predetermined number "00", this PAC allocation unit is indicative of a PAC allocation unit not used as denoted by "Not Recorded" in the FIGURE. 1. If the status information of a
PAC allocation unit is a predetermined number "01", this PAC allocation unit can be currently reused even if it has previously been used, as denoted by the "Available for reuse" in FIGURE 1. If the state of a PAC allocation unit is a predetermined number "10", this PAC allocation unit is indicative of a specific PAC allocation unit in which invalid information is recorded, as denoted by "Invalid" in FIGURE 1 If the status information of a PAC allocation unit is a predetermined number "11", this PAC allocation unit is indicative of a specific PAC allocation unit in which current valid information is recorded, as denoted by " Valid "in FIGURE 1. Therefore, the optical recording / playback apparatus shown in FIGURE 3 detects the status information of the PAC allocation unit contained in the DDS, in such a way that can recognize current status information of all PAC allocation units contained in each PAC area. FIGURE 2 shows information contained in a PAC mapping unit of the recording medium according to the present invention. With reference to Figure 2, an allocation unit that acts as a recording unit includes 32
data frames. A simple data frame includes data of 2048 bytes. In more detail, some parts of a first data frame (Data Frame 0) include general information associated with a corresponding PAC allocation unit as the PAC header information. The remaining 31 data frames (Data Frame 1 ~ Data Frame 31), and remaining areas other than the header information of the first data frame (Data Frame 0) include unique information from a PAC allocation unit correspondent. Needless to say, the last data frame (Data Frame 31) can be left as a reserved area when necessary, as shown in FIGURE 2. PAC header information recorded in some parts of the first data frame (Data Frame 0) contained in the PAC allocation unit is used as recognition information indicative of a corresponding PAC allocation unit type. The PAC header information includes a first field "PAC_ID", a second field "PAC format" to record format version information of the PAC allocation unit, and a third field "Update count" to record the number of update times. In the case of an optical device
recording / playback unable to recognize the first field "PAC_ID", the PAC header information includes a first field "Unknown PAC Rule" to record physical access control information of the disk and a second field "Unknown PAC Entire_Disc_flags", and it also includes segment information to designate a specific area of the disk controlled by the first field "Unknown PAC Rule". Particularly, the disk may include a maximum of 32 units of segment information as necessary. The PAC header information includes a first field "Number of Segments" indicative of the number of segments contained in a current PAC allocation unit and a plurality of "Segment_i" fields (i = 0 ~ 31) includes position information of each segment contained on the disk. In the case of an optical recording / reproducing apparatus capable of recognizing the field "PAC_ID", the PAC header information includes a predetermined field "Known PAC Entire_Disc_flags" capable of providing control information. Also, a plurality of "PAC-specific information" fields includes unique general information of a corresponding PAC allocation unit and the control information thereof. The aforementioned unique general information and the control information of the unit of
PAC allocation can be referred to by the optical recording / playback apparatus that recognizes the "PAC_ID" field when a recording / playback disc operation is performed. Each PAC allocation unit has a data structure shown in FIGURE 2, all bytes contained in a corresponding field among the aforementioned fields is determined to be "OOh" when the corresponding field is not used. Therefore, the value of "OOh" is able to designate a current unused field. For example, if the number of segments handled by the corresponding previous PAC allocation unit is 2, the field "Number of segments" contains a value of 2. A "Segment_0" field records a start address where a corresponding segment starts at the disc. A "Segment_l" field records a final address where the corresponding segment is terminated. All bytes of the remaining fields "Segment_2" ~ "Segment_31" are set to the value of "OOh", respectively. In this way, all the bytes contained in an unused field from among a plurality of "PAC-specific information" fields can be set to the "OOh" value, respectively. Particularly, the "PAC_ID" field is critical to the present invention. In more detail, the present invention is characterized in that different reformatting operations are carried out in accordance with the unit types of
assignment of individual PACs. The aforementioned PAC_ID information is used as specific information capable of determining the type information of a corresponding PAC allocation unit. The present invention primarily classifies the PAC allocation unit into three types of PAC allocation unit, i.e., an unused PAC allocation unit indicative of an unused PAC allocation unit, a PAC primary allocation unit. , and a non-primary PAC allocation unit. In greater detail, one or more primary PAC allocation units must be obligatorily included in the PAC area of each disk, and the non-primary PAC allocation unit is not defined by the PAC primary allocation unit. For example, if the 3-byte PAC_ID field in a specific allocation unit is denoted by "PAC_ID = 00 00 OH", this PAC allocation unit is indicative of an unused PAC allocation unit, particularly a unit of PAC assignment not used original. If the 3-byte PAC_ID field is denoted by "PAC_ID = FF FF FFH", this PAC allocation unit is indicative of a previously used allocation unit, particularly a previously unused PAC allocation unit which was used previously, as denoted by "PAC Assignment Unit Previously Used and Not Used Now" in the
FIGURE 2. For example, if the 3-byte PAC_ID field has a specific value predetermined as the standard specification as denoted by "PAC_ID = 50 52 4 Dh", this PAC allocation unit is indicative of a primary allocation unit of PAC If the 3-byte PAC_ID field has another value different from the specific value mentioned above, this PAC allocation unit is indicative of a non-primary PAC allocation unit. Therefore, although the PAC non-primary allocation unit can be set to a variety of PAC_ID values, you must use the default value determined as the standard specification. In other words, when a PAC-specific non-primary allocation unit is standardized, a corresponding PAC_ID field is determined to be a specific value. Therefore, an optical recording / reproduction apparatus manufactured before the non-primary PAC allocation unit is standardized can not recognize the PAC_ID value of the non-primary PAC allocation unit. In this way, if the optical recording / playback apparatus can not recognize the PAC_ID field of a specific PAC allocation unit, an access to the recording / playback disc is controlled by a control scheme recorded in the "Unknown Rule" field. "contained in the PAC allocation unit, as described in
previous. A method and apparatus for reformatting a recording medium after this will be described with reference to FIGURES 3-5. FIGURE 3 is a block diagram illustrating a recording / reproducing apparatus according to the present invention. With reference to FIGURE 3, the optical recording / reproducing apparatus mainly includes a recording / playback unit 20 and a controller 12. The recording / reproducing unit 20 includes an optical recording unit 11 for reading data and driving information. recorded on an optical disc; a servo unit 14 for controlling the optical recording unit 11; and signal processor 14 for resetting a reproduction signal received from the optical recording unit 11 to a desired signal value, or modulating a signal that is recorded on a signal recorded on the optical disc, in such a way as to transmit the restored result or modulated to the optical recording unit 11; a memory 15 for temporarily storing the operating information read from the optical disk; and a microprocessor 16 for controlling the aforementioned operations. Particularly, a manufactured product composed of only the recording / reproducing unit 20 is called a disk unit. The controller 12 is adapted to control the
general operations of the optical recording / reproducing apparatus, receives a command from a user when interconnecting with the user, and transmits the received command to the microprocessor 16 contained in the recording / reproducing unit 20, in such a way as to allow the optical recording apparatus / play perform operations associated with a user command. Particularly, the controller 12 generates a recording / playback command using the disc handling information received from the recording / playback unit 20, and then transmits the recording / playback command to the recording / playback unit 20. In association with the aforementioned operations, an AV decoder 17 (Audio / Video) finally decodes the data produced with the reception of a control signal from the controller 12, and transmits the decoded produced data to the user. An AV encoder 18 converts an input signal into a specific format signal such as an MPEG2 transport stream with the reception of a control signal from the controller 12, and transmits the specific format signal to the signal processor 13 in the recording / playback unit 20, such that a desired signal can be recorded on the optical disc. In the optical recording / reproduction apparatus
aforementioned, the reformatting operations according to the present invention will be described thereafter with reference to FIGURES 4 and 5. Upon receipt of a command from a user, the controller 12 transmits a disk reformat command to the unit 20 recording / playback. The reformat command can be admitted under a strict condition to protect data stored on a danger disk. It should be noted that the present invention assumes that the disk is capable of enabling the execution of the reformat command. The recording / reproducing unit 20 has received from the embodiments of the reformatting command operations shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 while reformatting the PAC area associated with the present invention. FIGURE 4 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for reformatting the PAC area according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. With reference to FIGURE 4, during the reformatting operation, the recording / reproducing unit 20 recognizes the type information of a PAC allocation unit using the PAC_ID information of the PAC allocation unit. If the PAC_ID information is indicative of a non-primary PAC allocation unit, the recording / reproducing unit 20 changes the PAC status information and the PAC_ID information into other information. Of other
In this case, if the PAC_ID information is indicative of a PAC primary allocation unit, the recording / reproducing unit 20 maintains the PAC status information and the PAC_ID information without any change. In greater detail, if the recording / playback unit 20 receives the reformat command in step S10, it recognizes the type information of each PAC allocation unit contained in the PAC area using the PAC_ID information in step S20. If the type information of a PAC allocation unit is indicative of a PAC primary allocation unit as denoted by "PAC_ID = 50 52 4Dh" in FIGURE 2 in step S20, the primary PAC allocation unit is indicative of a PAC allocation unit that must remain after the reformatting operation has been performed. Therefore, the recording / playback unit 20 must continuously maintain the PAC status information and the PAC_ID information recorded in the DDS without any change in step S30. But, it should be noted that the number of update times stored in the "Update Count" field contained in the PAC allocation unit is increased by a predetermined number of 1 in step S30. If the type information of a PAC allocation unit is determined to be a unit of
unused PAC allocation as denoted by "PAC_ID = 00 00 OOh" or "PAC_ID = FF FF FFh" in FIGURE 2 in step S20, the PAC allocation unit must remain after the reformatting operation has been performed . Therefore, the recording / reproducing unit 20 must continuously maintain the PAC status information and the PAC_ID information without any change in step S30. If the type information of a PAC allocation unit is indicative of a PAC-specific non-primary allocation unit in step S20, the PAC allocation unit must be changed to an unused PAC allocation unit during the PAC allocation operation. reformatting Therefore, the PAC status information indicative of a corresponding PAC allocation unit status contained in the DDS is changed from the first data (e.g., "11B") indicative of a valid status for the second data (per example, "01b") indicative of a state available for re-use in step S50. Also, the PAC_ID field contained in the PAC allocation unit must be changed to the specific information denoted by "PAC_ID = FF FF FFh" indicative of a PAC allocation unit not used in step S51. In this case, there is no need to initialize all the information stored in the PAC allocation unit, and the reformatting operation is terminated with the condition that the status information of
PAC and the information of PAC_ID are changed to other information in step S51. The above-mentioned steps S20 ~ S51 are repeated until all the PAC allocation units contained in the PAC area are reached in step S60. If the above-mentioned steps S20 ~ S51 are completed for each type of PAC allocation unit, the reformatting operation for the PAC area is also terminated. FIGURE 5 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for reformatting the PAC area according to another preferred embodiment of the present invention. With reference to FIGURE 5, during the reformatting operation, the recording / reproducing unit 20 recognizes the type information of a PAC allocation unit using the PAC_ID information of the PAC allocation unit. If the PAC_ID information is indicative of a non-primary PAC allocation unit, the recording / reproducing unit 20 initializes the PAC status information and the PAC_ID information. Otherwise, if the PAC_ID information is indicative of the primary PAC allocation unit, the recording / reproducing unit 20 maintains the PAC status information and the PAC_ID information without any change. In other words, according to the second preferred embodiment shown in FIGURE 5, during the reformatting operation of the allocation unit no
PAC primary, all the information contained in the PAC's non-priority allocation unit is initialized at the "OOh" or "FFh" value, differently from the first preferred modality shown in FIGURE 4. As is apparent from of the above description, a method and apparatus for reformatting a recording medium according to the present invention can efficiently reformat a specific handling area contained in the recording medium. Industrial Applicability It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations may be made in the present invention without departing from the spirit or scope of the inventions. Thus, it is intended that the present invention cover the modifications and variations of this provided invention provided they fall within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents.