JP2840543B2 - Information file device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information file device for storing document information such as an image or a character code in a portable information storage medium (external storage medium) such as a magneto-optical disk and utilizing the information for retrieval.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Along with the diversification of information, the use of multimedia, and an increase in the amount of information, a portable information storage medium (hereinafter referred to as a portable information storage medium) which has been widely used as one of information exchange means between information processing apparatuses. Abbreviation for storage medium, simply “external storage medium”
Has changed from a floppy disk to an external storage medium such as a magneto-optical disk having a larger capacity.

As an example of an information processing apparatus utilizing an external storage medium, an original such as a document or a drawing is read and the original (ie, image information) is read, as in an optical filing system SOF-FS21 manufactured by Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd. The amount of information is compressed by a digital data compression / expansion processing technique, stored in an external storage medium such as a magneto-optical disk, and the information is retrieved and read as necessary. An information file device has been put to practical use in which information can be displayed by decompressing a file.

[0004] The amount of information stored in the external storage medium is large, and once a failure occurs and the information on the external storage medium cannot be read, the information as intellectual property is lost. Since the external storage medium lacks hermeticity mainly due to its portability as an advantage, the external storage medium or the external storage medium driving device is used for a long time when compared with other large capacity hard disks due to its structure. (Hereinafter, an external storage medium driving device is abbreviated as a drive), and dirt such as dust adheres to the external storage medium, and a failure in accessing the external storage medium is likely to occur.

At the time of occurrence of a failure and inspection for preventing the occurrence of a failure, the failure is recovered by cleaning the external storage medium and / or the pickup of the drive, or the occurrence of a fatal failure is prevented. If the failure is caused by a medium, the failure is not removed by cleaning the drive. Conversely, if the failure is caused by the drive, the failure is not removed by cleaning the external storage medium. Therefore, in the case of an initial failure in which the failure is recovered by the cleaning, the failure can be easily repaired by appropriately determining the cause of the failure and performing the cleaning.

If the failure cannot be recovered by the cleaning, it is determined whether the failure is caused by the external storage medium or the drive. If the failure is caused by the external storage medium, the content of the external storage medium is determined. After copying to a new external storage medium, discard the external storage medium on the failed source side.If the failure is caused by the drive, repair the drive or replace parts or units. And need to recover from the failure. Here, since there is not enough information to determine whether the cause of the failure is in the external storage medium or the drive, it has been impossible to accurately determine the cause.

For example, as shown in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 3-192578, the number of times of occurrence of a failure is stored.
As shown in Japanese Patent No. 34728, the number of times of occurrence of a failure is stored for each of a plurality of drives. Similarly, when the drive reaches a certain upper limit, the drive is determined to be unusable, and a switch to a spare drive is made. However, even when a failure occurrence rate reaches a certain limit failure reference value due to a failure based on a failure of a specific external storage medium, there is a possibility that a drive failure is erroneously determined.

[0008] The drive (external storage medium drive) writes again to the alternate sector even if writing to the sector specified by the main control unit (normally, the sector of this medium is called an original sector) fails at the time of writing. In this case, the load on the main controller is reduced by restoring the fault or performing a fault recovery process such as error code correction at the time of reading. Although the recovered fault is usually not reported to the main control unit, it often includes a fatal fault that cannot be recovered in the future, and is extremely dangerous depending on the frequency of the fault occurrence.

On the drive side, the number of each block that has accessed the external storage medium and the number of each block that has failed in the process of accessing the external storage medium are determined by:
Although the data is stored inside the drive, the drive itself handles multiple external storage media, so failures are distributed to multiple external storage media, and whether the cause of the failure is in the external storage media, or It was difficult to identify what was on the drive. In the external storage medium, the failure replacement information on the alternative sector processing is recorded, but it is not possible to grasp the tendency of capturing the failure as a time series.

[0010]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and obtains information on the number of failures of a drive, accumulates the information as a number information set for each external storage medium, and stores the accumulated result. It can be displayed on the information display unit. Whether all faults have occurred in a specific external storage medium, including not only faults passed to the main control unit, but also faults that occurred in the repair processing inside the drive, By checking whether the error has occurred uniformly in the medium, it is possible to determine whether the cause of the fault is the external storage medium or the drive, and to determine the exact cause for the purpose of removing the cause of the fault. Actions can be taken.

[0011]

According to the present invention, there is provided an information file apparatus comprising at least an information input section, an information display section, and an internal storage section for accessing document information on an external storage medium. The number of accesses by access element to the block, which is a unit of storage medium handling,
The number of failure occurrences per access element occurring in the process of performing the access, and the information obtained by acquiring from the external storage medium drive and cumulatively managing each external storage medium and each external storage medium drive as a count information set Means for accumulating the number of times information set placed in the main control unit in the file device;
Failure rate calculation for calculating the result of dividing the number of failures for each access element in the number-of-times information set by the number of accesses for each access element as the failure rate for each access element for each external storage medium and each external storage medium drive device Measure and measure date and time
Date and time measurement means for obtaining
The count information set of the external storage medium is set at predetermined time intervals.
Calculate the failure rate for each access element, and
Is the first external storage medium limit corresponding to
If the threshold value is higher than the threshold value, the external storage medium
An external storage medium that displays a warning prompting body cleaning on the information display
Obtained from body cleaning warning display means and the date and time measurement means
The count information set of the external storage medium at regular time intervals
Calculate the failure rate for each access element and calculate
Any failure rate corresponds to the second external storage medium limit
External storage media exceeding the failure reference value if it exceeds the failure reference value
To a new write-inhibit mode, and
External storage medium for notifying change of prohibition mode to information display unit
Write prohibition notification means, external storage medium cleaning warning display,
Indicates that the storage medium has been completely cleaned
Completion report from the information input section
Means and the number-of-times information setting unit according to the cleaning completion report.
Access by access element in the corresponding count information set
Clear the number of times and number of failures, and access elements
Clear the count information set to update another cumulative start date and time
And the corresponding external storage medium prohibits further writing
Mode, the external storage medium cleaning
Subsequent writing to the relevant external storage medium by the completion report
External storage medium write prohibition release
And a step .

[0012]

[0013]

Further, at least an information input unit and an information display
And an internal storage unit.
In the information file device to be accessed, the external storage
Access by block element, which is a unit of storage media
Number of accesses and the number of accesses
The external storage medium drive device
From the external storage media as a count information set
Where the cumulative management is performed for each external storage medium drive.
Number of times information set in the main control unit in the information file device
Accumulating means and access elements in the frequency information set
Divided by the number of accesses for each access element
Results as the failure rate for each access element,
And failure rate calculation means for calculating for each external storage medium drive
Date and time measurement means for measuring the date and time, and the date and time measurement
External storage medium drive at regular time intervals obtained from the means
The failure rate for each access element in the frequency information set
Calculate and determine if any failure rate by access element
The first external storage medium drive critical failure reference value
In this case, cleaning of the external storage medium
Warning to the information display unit.
Sweep warning display means and a constant obtained from the date and time measurement means.
At each time interval of the external storage medium drive,
Calculate the failure rate for each access element of the
Any other failure rate corresponds to a corresponding second external storage medium
Exceeding the reference value if the drive device limit failure reference value or more
A new write-inhibit mode for the external storage medium drive
Mode and the information display changes to write-inhibit mode.
Update notification, external storage medium drive write inhibit notification
And the external storage medium drive write inhibit notification means.
If the mode is changed to write-protection,
Warning that prompts the user to repair or replace the external storage medium drive
External storage medium drive repair warning display means displayed on display
And external storage medium drive cleaning warning display or external storage
After the medium drive device write prohibition notification, the external storage medium drive
Report the completion of device repair, replacement, or cleaning from the information input unit
An external storage medium drive cleaning completion report means for, the cleaning
According to the completion report, the corresponding count information in the count information set
Access count and failure count for each access element in the report set
And the cumulative start date for each access element
Time update count information set clearing means and applicable
Mode in which the external storage medium drive prohibits subsequent writing
The external storage medium drive device
The subsequent completion report to the external storage medium drive
External storage media drive line to release write inhibit mode
And a prohibition canceling means .

[0015]

[0016]

[0017]

[0018]

[0019]

According to the present invention, when performing processing involving access to an external storage medium, the main controller clears information on the number of failures stored in a drive (hereinafter referred to as a drive) of the external storage medium. After that, the external storage medium is accessed, but from this point on, the number of failure occurrences and the total number of accessed blocks start in the drive. When a series of access to the external storage medium is completed, the main control unit cuts the count information from the drive (acquires the count information and clears all the count information at the source of the transfer: Get & Reset). Buffered LOG), totals are stored in the internal storage unit in the count information set for each external storage medium and drive, and when the external storage medium is selected, the count information set is displayed together with the name of the external storage medium. Display in the section.

Further, the main control unit checks the number of times information set for each of the external storage medium and each drive for each access element at regular time intervals, and checks the failure occurrence rate which is a value obtained by dividing the number of times of failure by the number of accesses. If it exceeds the first or second limit failure reference value set in advance,
A corresponding message such as a cleaning warning or a light prohibition notice is displayed on the information display unit together with the content of the number-of-times information set.

[0021]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an information file device according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a procedure for acquiring a count information set for each external storage medium, and FIG. 3 is a detailed view of a count information set unit 611 of the external storage medium. (The number-of-times information setting unit 612 for each drive and the number-of-times information setting unit 611 of the external storage medium have exactly the same contents except that the external storage medium ID of M03 is changed to the drive number). FIG. 5 is an example of a display screen of the failure occurrence rate of the external storage medium, FIG. 5 is an example of a schematic diagram showing the position of the information storage state of the external storage medium,
FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a procedure for performing a warning display, and FIG. 7 is an example of a display screen of a warning message.

First, the configuration of the information file device shown in FIG. 1 will be described. The information file device includes a main control unit 1 for executing a software program in accordance with at least various processing procedures, an information input unit 2 for inputting information or an operation instruction such as a keyboard and a mouse, and an information display for displaying various information as a display device. Unit 3, a drive 5 (referred to as a drive) which is an external storage medium drive, and a count information set unit 61 for cumulatively storing access and fault count information, and a first and a second fault occurrence rates for each medium and each drive. It is composed of an internal storage unit 6 and the like including limit failure reference values 62 and 63 that are second reference values.

The main control unit 1 includes at least date and time measurement means 11 for managing the date and time, and prunes the number of times of access and the number of occurrences of failures for each access element from the drive. Reap clearing all information: Get & Reset Bu
ffered LOG), the frequency information set accumulating means 12 for cumulatively storing the frequency information set of the frequency information set unit 61 as statistical information for each drive and each external storage medium. In the frequency information set, the result of dividing the number of failures by the number of accesses Means for calculating the failure rate for each external storage medium and each drive, and the number of times the drive failure information set exceeds the limit failure rate of the drive 1 in the drive frequency information set for all the failure rates of the drive and the external storage medium. The number of information sets A, the number of information sets B exceeding the critical failure rate 1 of the external storage medium in the number information set of the external storage medium, and the number of times the critical failure rate 2 of the drive exceeds the number of drive information sets The number of information sets C and the number of information sets D exceeding the critical failure rate 2 of the external storage medium in the number information set of the external storage medium, Betting amount A, B, C, and D compare,
If C> = D> = 0, it is determined that a failure has occurred in the external storage medium.
If <C <D, it is determined that a drive failure has occurred, otherwise, if A> = B> = 0, it is determined that a failure has occurred in the external storage medium, and if 0 <A <B, then a drive failure has been determined. Failure cause determining means 23 for comparing and examining the frequency information sets to determine the deviation by determining that the corresponding specific drive or external storage medium is the cause of the failure,
External storage medium cleaning warning display means 14 and drive cleaning warning display means 16 for displaying the result of the determination as a warning on the information display unit, information on the number of times the failure rate of the external storage medium or the drive exceeds the second limit failure rate According to the set,
The external storage medium or the drive is changed in setting to a mode in which new writing is prohibited according to the degree of failure, and the external storage medium write prohibition notifying means 15 and the drive write prohibition notifying means 17 for notifying the prohibition mode setting are provided. In response to the above warning message, wipe the external storage medium with a soft cloth and alcohol or clean water, and clean, repair or replace the drive pickup by wiping it with a swab and alcohol. The external storage medium cleaning completion reporting means 18 and the drive cleaning completion reporting means 20 as means for reporting the completion from the information input unit, and after the cleaning completion report, in the case of the above-described write prohibition mode, the write prohibition mode is released and the operation is restarted. Storage medium write prohibition canceling means 19 and drive write prohibition canceling means 2 serve as means for returning to a writable state. With respect to an external storage medium or drive, to begin recording the information, and all information from the numerical information M04 of M13 in the number of the completion report at the same time the number of times the information set is cleared to 0, M1
4, the number information set clearing means 22 for acquiring and changing the latest date and time from the date and time measuring means to the cumulative start date and time of M15 and M16.

The write-protect mode of the external storage medium or drive means that when a process involving recording on the relevant external storage medium or drive is about to occur, "the external storage medium or drive is write-protected. Please do the cleaning process first. "And so on to prevent writing to the external storage medium or drive. After the cleaning process is completed and the report is made, the write prohibition mode is released so that writing becomes possible again.

The information input unit 2 is for a user to perform an instruction operation or data input, and in some cases, includes a mouse or the like as a pointing device.

Drive 5, which is an external storage medium drive
Is a count information set 51 including the number of blocks that have performed access to the external storage medium and the number of failures that have occurred during the access, and an external storage medium recording / reproducing unit that controls reading, writing, or seeking to the external storage medium. 52.

The details of the count information set 51 will be described with reference to FIG. The number-of-times information set has the same number of sets according to the number of drives and the number of external storage media. In the number-of-times information set, the number of times of access and the number of times of occurrence of a failure include the number of reads, writes, and seeks. Is managed as cumulative data. The number-of-times information set number M01 indicates a value obtained by adding the number of drives and the number of external storage media. M02 to M1 as the contents of the frequency information set
6, M02 is the serial number of the number information set,
The external storage medium ID M03 is a year, month, day, hour, minute, and second as its ID in the case of an external storage medium, and a numerical value within three digits in the case of a set of drives.

First, the contents of the number-of-times information set for reading will be described. The number M04 of read blocks corresponds to the number of accesses related to reading. The number M05 of read blocks that have been automatically repaired and the number M of read blocks that cannot be repaired automatically.
06 indicates the number of failures related to read, and the total number of both is regarded as the number of failures. The read failure occurrence rate M07 is M05 and M06
(The sixth decimal place is rounded off to the fifth decimal place).

Next, the contents of the number-of-times information set for writing will be described. The number M08 of write blocks corresponds to the number of accesses related to writing, and the number M09 of automatically restored write blocks indicates the number of failures related to writing. The write failure occurrence rate M10 is obtained by dividing M09 by M08 (rounded to the sixth decimal place and obtained to the fifth decimal place).

Next, the contents of the number-of-times information set regarding seek will be described. The number of seeks M11 corresponds to the number of accesses related to seeking, and the number of seek retries M12 indicates the number of failures related to seeking. Seek failure rate M13
Is obtained by dividing M12 by M11 (rounded to the fifth decimal place and obtained to the fourth decimal place).

Next, the cumulative information start time is provided for each of read, write, and seek, and literally indicates the date and time at which the cumulative number of accesses and / or the cumulative number of accesses was started. In order to avoid the burial of the occurrence of a failure, the number of accesses, the number of failures are periodically cleared, and the judgment is made as to whether or not the user is confident.

A method of obtaining and displaying a number-of-times information set as statistical data for each external storage medium and various warning display methods as warning displays will be described with reference to flowcharts of FIGS. 2 and 6, respectively.

When the user performs a process involving an access such as read, write, or seek to an external storage medium such as a magneto-optical disk, the main control unit 1 issues an access start command to the drive 5 and thereafter issues a drive start command. For locking the external storage medium of the drive to prevent the external storage medium from being taken out (S11 (hereinafter, S means processing)), and for clearing the frequency information set in the drive (S12). Then, a command (S13) for acquiring the external storage medium ID from the external storage medium is issued in this order. The external storage medium ID is identification information of the external storage medium set for each side of the external storage medium, is set for the purpose of easily selecting the external storage medium, and is set when the external storage medium is initialized. Inner circumference area M31 of the external storage medium together with the storage medium name
Is written to. In this embodiment, the external storage medium ID uses the date and time when the external storage medium is initialized. In accordance with the instructions in S11, S12, and S13, the drive prohibits the removal of the external storage medium, clears the number-of-times information set 51 held in the drive, and stores the external storage medium ID.
And transfers the external storage medium ID to the main control unit 1. After acquiring the external storage medium ID, the main control unit starts access to the drive, and writes information to and reads information from the external storage medium (S1).
4). In the course of this execution, the number of blocks accessed to the external storage medium, the number of occurrences of a failure, and the like are cumulatively stored in the number-of-times information set 51 as statistical information (S15).

When a series of information access to the external storage medium is completed (S16), the main control unit 1 issues a command to end the access to the external storage medium to the drive 5 and a command to prune the frequency information set. Then, the frequency information set is obtained from the drive, and the frequency information on the drive side is cleared to 0 (S17). After obtaining the number-of-times information set from the drive, the main control unit issues a command to the drive to enable removal of the external storage medium and notifies the end of the command (S
18).

The main control unit 1 stores the acquired external storage medium ID and the acquired external storage medium ID in the number information set unit 61 stored as shown in FIG. It is checked whether there is a matching external storage medium ID (S19).

If there is no external storage medium with the same ID, a frequency information set is newly set as the external storage medium ID in the frequency information set section (S20).

If there is an external storage medium having the same ID, whether a prescribed date and time has elapsed since the start of the accumulation of the number-of-times information set of the external storage medium (S21), or the number of processing blocks exceeds the reference value. (S22), and if any of them, the number information set of the external storage medium is cleared. If there is an external storage medium with the same ID, the number information set of the external storage medium is further accumulated (S24).

When the number information set is newly created or cleared as described above, the numerical values from M04 to M13 are cleared to 0, and M14, M15, M1
For the date and time 6, date, month, day, hour, minute, and second are acquired by the date and time measuring means, and the date, month, day, hour, minute, and second are updated as data. Further, these are to independently judge and clear the read, write and seek systems.

The necessity of clear judgment of the number information set of the external storage medium will be described. Even if an external storage medium or drive that has been operating normally for a long time starts to fail at a certain point in time, the number of access blocks (M04, M08, M11) becomes sufficiently large so as not to change the failure occurrence rate. In such a case, the change in the failure occurrence rate cannot be detected, and even if the failure occurrence frequency increases, it is hidden by the number of access blocks. For the above reasons, the frequency information sets 611 and 612 need to be periodically cleared. The clearing is performed for each external storage medium and each drive, and further, for the access elements (read, write,
Or seek).

The clear will be described in more detail. As for the read, M04 to M07, which are the read system information of the count information set, are cleared to 0, the current year, month, day, hour, minute, and second are obtained from the date and time measuring means, and the read system count information set cumulative start date (M14) is set. Replace. Similarly, for the write, M08 to M10 are cleared to 0, and the date and time of M15 are replaced. Similarly for seek systems, M11 to M
13 is cleared to 0, and the date and time of M16 are replaced.

The total storage of the count information set in S24 will be described in detail. The data M04, M05, M06, M08, M in the number information set acquired from the drive 5
09, M11, and M12 are added to the corresponding data of the number-of-mediums information set 611 with the same external storage medium ID, and then the failure occurrence rate of the corresponding data of the number-of-mediums information set 611 with the same external storage medium ID M07, M
10, M13 is recalculated, and the per-medium information setting section is replaced and stored.

The addition of the count information set in S20 will be described in detail below. The number M01 of external storage medium statistical information at the head of the number information set unit 61 is increased by one, and in the number information set corresponding to the increased number M01, the increased M01 is set to the number information set number M02.
The external storage medium ID acquired from the drive is set as an ID in M03, and the corresponding data M04 and M are obtained from the frequency information set data acquired from the drive.
05, M06, M08, M09, M11, and M12, calculate and write the failure occurrence rates of M07, M10, and M13, and measure the date and time to the total start date and time information set for each access element of M14, M15, and M16 After obtaining the date and time from the means and setting the same date and time, the number of times information set 611 is additionally set, and then the number of external storage medium statistical information is increased by one.
To update.

Next, a method of displaying the number information set of the external storage medium and displaying a warning will be described. The display of the number-of-times information set is performed by displaying the number-of-times information stored in the number-of-times information set 611 on an external storage medium selection screen as shown in FIG. 4 displayed on the information display unit 3 for selecting an external storage medium to be used. Displays the failure rate of the set. In the external storage medium selection screen shown in FIG. 4, the read failure rate is 1.2 / 10,
The indication of 000 indicates that the number of failure occurrences is 1.2 / 10,000 of the number of block accesses. Naturally, a failure recovery process is performed for the occurrence of these failures, and it is considered that they are operating normally in appearance. Generally, it is difficult to eliminate the occurrence of a failure in a large-capacity storage medium as an external storage medium, and the occurrence of a failure is allowed within a range of its limit reference value. In the example of FIG. 4, only the failure occurrence rate is displayed. However, by displaying the number of accesses in the frequency information set, more accurate failure determination can be made in consideration of the size of the population.

From the external storage medium selection screen shown in FIG. 4, it is possible to determine whether the failure is caused by the external storage medium or the external storage medium drive. As the judgment content, for example, the deviation or tendency in the failure occurrence rate of all the external storage media is read from FIG. 4, and if the failure occurrence rate of all the external storage media is large, it can be read that there is a drive failure, If only a specific external storage medium has a high failure occurrence rate, it can be determined that the failure is caused by the external storage medium.

The warning is displayed in the following manner. The main control unit checks the elapse of a certain period of time, for example, every hour by the date and time measurement unit, and when the time has passed (S31), refers to the data stored in the medium number of times information set 611 (S32). , Read, write, or seek access element is determined. If the number of accessed blocks is small, the failure occurrence rate increases even if one failure occurs. Therefore, it is first checked whether the number of accessed blocks is a certain constant, for example, 10,000 blocks or more (S33), and the number of access blocks is not less than the constant. Only in this case, it is checked whether the failure occurrence rate in the number-of-times information set for each external storage medium is equal to or greater than the limit failure reference value (S34).

If any one of the checks for each access element in S34 corresponds to the above, a warning display screen as shown in FIG. 7 is displayed on the information display section 3 to check, clean, repair, or replace the external storage medium or drive. Prompt (S35). In FIG. 7, the word “confirmation” is displayed in a rectangular shape. After the corresponding external storage medium or drive is inspected, cleaned, repaired, or replaced, the confirmation place is clicked with a mouse or Alternatively, the warning screen display is set so as to remain without disappearing unless a specific key top of the keyboard is pressed, and this is a response means to various warning displays.

The meaning of having the six types of frequency information sets for each of read, write, and seek (for each access element) will be described. As the nature of the failure, seek seeks the address information of each block, and since failure is less likely to occur than other reads and writes, the occurrence of the failure has a very significant meaning, and the limit failure of seek It is necessary to set a small reference value and take measures at an early stage of occurrence. Next, as for the write operation, the read operation after writing is always performed at the same time as the write operation to each block, and the operation includes only read operation like read operation. Often appear as obstacles first. Therefore, it is necessary to judge the level of a failure by changing the magnitude of the failure occurrence rate for each of read, write, and seek.

The timing of the mowing will be described. By expressing the number-of-times information set from the drive and resetting the number-of-times information set on the drive side, it is expressed that the drive is cleared in the sense that the number-of-times information set on the drive side is cleared. In principle, mowing is performed when the main control unit of the information file device determines that it is necessary. In particular, mowing is required at the following timing.

First, when the power is turned off in the information file device, the information on the drive side is lost due to the power-off, so if the pruning is not performed, the access and failure count information set will be lost. It is necessary to program the file device to automatically reap when the power is turned off. For power-off, it is not possible to cope with a sudden power supply cut-off such as sudden power cord disconnection, but if there is a power-off instruction and the power-off procedure is programmed by software based on it The problem is solved by incorporating mowing from the main control unit to the drive as part of the procedure.

Second, when a drive failure occurs,
Since there is a possibility that the drive may be detached or replaced, there is a possibility that the number-of-times information set may be lost, and reaping is necessary.

Third, the latest state is secured early as failure information, and the frequency information set is trimmed at regular intervals (eg, every 60 minutes) in order to grasp the failure status.

The limit failure reference value will be described. As the limit failure reference value, a reference value is separately set for a medium and a drive. Then, reference values 1 and 2 are set for each. The first is a relatively mild limit failure reference value, which is mainly caused by the attachment of dust to an external storage medium or a drive, and has a level at which the failure can be removed by performing simple cleaning or the like. This is a reference value. The second reference value is a case where the degree of the failure is fatal, and the external storage medium is recovered by leaving it unattended, such as defective or damaged external storage medium, defective drive pickup, or deteriorated laser power. This is a reference value of the level when the possibility of occurrence of an impossible failure is high or has occurred. Although the importance of the occurrence of the failure rate for each access element has been described above, different values are set for read, write, or seek for the same reason. By way of example, the first marginal fault criterion is 0.1 for read, write, or seek.
3, 0.64, and 0.02%, and the second threshold value is 7.
6, 3.8, 0.2%, etc., and as shown in the example, the limit is set to the minimum value as the limit obstacle reference value as a numerical value, which is the strictest.

Generally, when an unrecoverable fatal fault occurs, the rate of occurrence of an internal fault that can be repaired in the drive in advance increases, so that the fault frequency information set is displayed on the information display unit, Unrecoverable catastrophic failure occurs by displaying a warning when the failure rate of the external storage medium or the drive exceeds the preset critical failure reference value immediately before the occurrence of a major failure on the information display unit. By prompting the user to clean, repair, and replace the external storage medium or the drive in advance, it is possible to prevent the occurrence of an unrecoverable catastrophic failure. Many lawsuits have been valued at hundreds of millions of yen due to the disappearance of information stored in external storage media, and software assets that are incomparable with hardware assets such as external storage media and drives It is of great significance to predict the occurrence of catastrophic failure at an early stage and prevent the disappearance or destruction of accumulated information.

[0054]

According to the present invention, every time an external storage medium is accessed, a number-of-times information set for the external storage medium is acquired, and the number-of-times-of-access-information set for the external storage medium and the number-of-times information set for the failure are obtained. Performs storage and periodically displays the number of times information set for each external storage medium and drive on the information display unit, so that it is possible to timely discover that there is a defect in the external storage medium or drive, and of course, It is possible to take an appropriate action based on the determination as to whether the failure is caused by the medium or the drive. In addition, the number of occurrences of internal failures that can be recovered in the drive increases before a catastrophic failure that cannot be recovered generally occurs. By performing a warning display when the reference value 62 or the drive limit failure reference value 63 is exceeded, the user is prompted to clean, repair, or replace the external storage medium or drive before an unrecoverable fatal failure occurs. Thus, a fatal obstacle can be avoided.

[0055]

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an information file device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a means for acquiring an information set for each external storage medium in the information file device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing a count information set for each external storage medium stored in a count information set for each external storage medium of the information file device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a screen displaying a failure occurrence rate for each external storage medium of the information file device according to the embodiment of the present invention on the information display unit.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing information stored in an external storage medium of the information file device according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a warning message display means of the information file device according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a warning display screen displaying a warning message of the information file device according to one embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Main control part 11 Date and time measurement means 12 Number of times information set accumulation means 13 Failure rate calculation means 14 External storage medium cleaning warning display means 15 External storage medium write prohibition notification means 16 Drive cleaning warning display means 17 Drive write prohibition notification means 18 External storage Medium cleaning completion report indicating means 19 External storage medium write prohibition canceling means 20 Drive cleaning completion report indicating means 21 Drive write prohibition canceling means 22 Number of times information set clearing means 23 Failure cause determining means 2 Information input unit 3 Information display unit 5 External storage medium Drive device (drive) 51 Number-of-times information (inside of drive) 6 Internal storage unit 61 Number-of-times information set unit 611 Number-of-times information set for each external storage medium 612 Number-of-times information set for each drive 62 Limit failure reference value for external storage medium 63 Limit for drive Failure reference value M01 times Number of information sets M02 Number of information set number set M03 External storage medium ID or drive number M04 Number of read blocks (corresponding to access number) M05 Number of read blocks that could recover from failure (corresponds to part of the number of failures) M06 Read failure Number of occurrences (corresponding to a part of the number of failures) M07 Read failure occurrence rate M08 Number of write blocks (corresponding to the number of accesses) M09 Number of read blocks backed up (corresponding to the number of failures) M10 Write failure occurrence rate M11 Number of seeks (number of accesses M12 Seek retry count (corresponding to the number of failures) M13 Seek failure occurrence rate M14 Read system count information set cumulative start date and time M15 Write system count information set cumulative start date and time M16 Seek system count information set cumulative start date and time M31 External storage medium Header information such as ID 32 search information M33 image information

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-48-8132 (JP, A) JP-A-3-192578 (JP, A) JP-A-5-35542 (JP, A) 89407 (JP, A) JP-A-3-134728 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁶ , DB name) G06F 11/30-11/34 G06F 3/06

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] At least an information input unit, an information display unit,
And an internal storage unit for accessing the document information in the external storage medium, the number of accesses for each access element to a block, which is a handling unit of the external storage medium, and the access generated in the process of performing the access The main controller in the information file device, which acquires the number of failure occurrences for each element from the external storage medium drive and collectively manages the number of failure information sets for each external storage medium and each external storage medium drive as a count information set. Means for accumulating the number of times information set, and a result obtained by dividing the number of times of failure for each access element in the number of times information set by the number of times of access for each access element as a failure rate for each access element, for each external storage medium and for each external storage medium. and failure rate calculating means for calculating for each drive unit, a time measuring means for measuring a time, one to obtain from該日time measuring means External Symbol for each of the time intervals
Failure rate for each access element of the number information set of storage media
Calculates the failure rate for each access element,
The first external storage medium critical failure reference value
Warning message prompting you to clean external storage media that exceeds the reference value
External storage medium cleaning warning display means displayed on the display unit, and externally provided at regular time intervals obtained from the date and time measurement means.
Obstacles for each access element of the count information set of the storage medium
Calculate the failure rate and determine if any failure rate
In case of exceeding the corresponding second external storage medium critical failure standard value
Any new write-protection of external storage media exceeding the reference value is prohibited.
Change to the stop mode, and inform the change of the prohibition mode
External storage medium write prohibition notifying means for notifying the display unit, external storage medium cleaning warning display, or external storage medium write prohibition
After the stop notification, the information input unit reports that the storage medium has been cleaned.
External storage medium cleaning completion reporting means for performing
The access count for each access element in the count information set
Clear the number of harms and accumulate by access element
A mode for clearing the number of times information set to update the start date and time, and a mode in which the corresponding external storage medium prohibits subsequent writing
When the external storage medium cleaning completion report is set to
And later of La site ban to the appropriate external storage medium by tell
An information file device comprising: an external storage medium write prohibition canceling means for canceling a mode . 2. An information input unit, an information display unit,
And an internal storage unit.
In an information file device that performs access, access to a block that is a handling unit of the external storage medium is performed.
Number of accesses for each element
And the number of failure occurrences for each access element
Externally stored as a frequency information set obtained from the body drive
Cumulative management for each medium and for each external storage medium drive
At the time, the circuit was placed in the main control unit in the information file device.
The number information set accumulating means and the number of failures for each access element in the number information set are registered.
Divided by the access count for each access element
The failure rate for each element is
Failure rate calculating means for calculating each body drive device, date and time measuring means for measuring the date and time, and external recording at fixed time intervals obtained from the date and time measuring means.
For each access element of the number information set of the storage medium drive
The failure rate of each access element
Has a corresponding first external storage medium drive critical fault criterion
External storage medium drive device exceeding the reference value
External storage medium that informs the information display unit of a warning urging the user to clean
A drive device cleaning warning display unit, and an external unit at fixed time intervals obtained from the date and time measurement unit.
Access element of the number information set of the storage medium drive
Calculate another failure rate and any failure by access element
Rate of the corresponding second external storage medium drive
If the reference value is exceeded, the external storage medium drive exceeding the reference value
Switch to a new write-inhibit mode
Notification of the change to the write prohibition mode to the
The storage medium driving device write prohibition notifying means and the external storage medium driving device write prohibition notification means
If you change the mode to write-inhibit,
A warning to repair or replace the media drive is displayed on the information display.
External storage medium drive repair warning display means for displaying, external storage medium drive cleaning warning display, or external storage medium
After the drive write prohibition notification, the external storage medium drive
Repair, replacement, or to report a cleaning completion from the information input unit
An external storage medium drive cleaning completion reporting unit, and the number of times information set unit corresponding to the cleaning completion report
The access count for each access element in the count information set
Clear the number of harms and accumulate by access element
The number-of-times information set clearing means for updating the start date and time, and the corresponding external storage medium drive prohibits subsequent writing.
If the external storage medium drive is set to
To the external storage medium drive by the
External storage medium drive to release the write inhibit mode after
An information file device comprising: a device write prohibition canceling means .