JP3049797B2 - Optical disk and optical disk recording / reproducing 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 optical disk for a digital data recording / reproducing system and an optical disk recording / reproducing apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Partial ROM disks have attracted attention as one form of optical disks. A partial ROM disk is one in which a partial area of the optical disk is configured as a read-only area, and the remaining area is configured as a recording and reproducing area. The use of the partial ROM disk is considered, which has the feature that it can be mass-reproduced at low cost by a stamper in a factory, in addition to its large capacity. For example, as a disk that stores a word processor font disk or dictionary,
Alternatively, use as a disk storing a computer program and an operation manual has been considered. Such a partial ROM disk is disclosed in, for example, JP-A-61-280.
048.

A conventional partial ROM will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 3, 30 is a partial ROM disk,
Reference numeral 31 denotes a read-only sector area, and 32 denotes a recording / reproducing sector area. For example, a computer program is stored in the 31 read-only sector area, and, for example, user data is recorded and reproduced in the 32 recording / reproducing sector area.

FIG. 4 shows a conventional optical disk recording / reproducing apparatus.
Shown in In FIG. 4, 41 is a partial ROM disk, 42
Is an optical disk drive, and 43 is a host computer. The optical disk device 42 is connected to the host computer 43, and the optical disk drive 42 accesses a desired file from the optical disk 41 and transfers data to the host computer 43 by operation of the host computer 43.

[0005]

Although an optical disk is a large-capacity data recording / reproducing apparatus, a new problem has begun to occur due to its large capacity. That is, the data capacity recorded on one medium is, for example, about 1 MB in the current 5-inch high-density floppy disk,
In the case of a 3.5-inch optical disk, it is about 100 times as large. Assuming a current mainstream OS such as MS-DOS or UNIX, the number of files exceeds 1000 for a typical file of about 100 KB. These files are usually managed in a directory structure, but the number of directories is large, the hierarchical structure is deep, and it is becoming difficult to find a target file.

By the way, in MS-DOS and UNIX,
For an executable program file, the location of the file can be specified by the concept of an execution path. In other words, if the directory group in which the executable file exists is registered as a path name in the system, the directory specified by the path will not be specified when specifying the executable program. The operating system can search and automatically find and execute it. References relating to path names include, for example, (MS-DOS 3.1 Handbook, 198
6. Ascii Book Editor, edited by ASCII, PP. 2
8-29).

On the other hand, in the case of a partial ROM disk, the program file is written in advance at the time of shipment from the factory, and the location where the executable program exists, that is, the execution path can be determined at the time of shipment from the factory. That is, the execution path can be considered as information unique to the disk.

[0008] Conventional data recording / reproducing devices have mainly been small-capacity floppy disks or fixed magnetic disks that do not require media exchange. Therefore, in the case of a small-capacity floppy disk, the number of files is small, so that setting of a path is easy. In the case of a fixed magnetic disk, since the medium is not exchanged, it is not necessary to frequently change the path once set. However, in the case of a partial ROM disk, a use form of distributing many applications for one optical disk is conceivable. As described above, the number of files is extremely large, and the path changes due to frequent media loading / ejection. However, there is a problem that the burden of setting the execution path by the user becomes extremely large.

An object of the present invention is to solve the above problems and to provide an optical disk and an optical disk recording / reproducing apparatus which are easy to use.

[0010]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention comprises a read-only data area, a recording / reproducing data area, and a disk definition area, wherein the read-only data area has at least an executable computer program, An execution path for the computer program is recorded,
An identifier indicating that the disk is a disk on which an execution path is recorded is recorded in the disk definition area, and the recording position of the execution path is a partial RO located at a predetermined sector position.
Use an M optical disk. When a partial ROM optical disk, which includes at least an optical disk, an optical disk recording / reproducing means, and a host computer and has the execution path recorded thereon, is loaded onto the optical disk recording / reproducing means, the area where the execution path is recorded is recorded on the optical disk. The recording / reproducing means reads out and the host computer automatically sets an execution path corresponding to the computer program recorded on the optical disk.

[0011]

In the partial ROM disk of the present invention, the path name where the executable file group exists is recorded in the read-only area in advance. The recording format and recording sector of the path name are determined in advance. For this reason, the optical disk recording / reproducing means loaded with the partial ROM disk can automatically recognize the execution path from the determined sector position.

[0012]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a plan view of an optical disk according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes an optical disk manufactured as a partial ROM disk, and reference numeral 2 denotes a read-only sector area. In this sector area, for example, an executable file of a word processor, a dictionary file, a character font, and the like are written in advance at the time of factory shipment. . Reference numeral 3 denotes a recording / reproducing sector area, for example, a sector area for recording / reproducing data unique to the user such as various settings. Reference numeral 4 denotes a path name registration area, which is a read-only sector area as in the case of 2. In this sector area, the path name of the executable file recorded in the area 3 is recorded. This area is exaggerated for clarity. The storage format and path name of the executable file are recorded as follows.
It must be recorded based on a logical format and a file allocation table that match the OS used, but this is easy. 5 is a disk definition area,
An identifier indicating that this disk is a disk on which an execution path name is recorded is recorded.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, an identifier that indicates that the disk is a disk on which an execution path is recorded is recorded, so that a user-friendly optical disk can be provided.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an outline of an optical disk recording / reproducing apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 2, reference numeral 6 denotes an optical disk, which is the same partial ROM disk as in FIG.
7 is an optical disk drive, 8 is a host computer, 9
Is an optical disk device drive program in the host computer. In the optical disk recording / reproducing apparatus of FIG. 2, the partial ROM disk 6 is loaded, and when the host computer 8 accesses the partial ROM disk 6, the device driver 9 recognizes that the partial ROM disk 6 has been loaded into the optical disk drive 7. Before the file access, the path name registration area 4 of the partial ROM disk is read, and the registered path name is read by the OS.
Set notification. At this time, it is necessary to identify that this partial ROM disk is a disk in which a path name is registered. This can be achieved by the disk definition area 5 provided in the disk. The setting of the notification of the path name to the OS can be made by, for example, setting environment variables.

As described above, according to the present invention, the host computer can automatically set the execution path recorded on the optical disk.

In an OS such as UNIX, the absolute path name changes depending on the mounting position of the optical disk drive.
Even in this case, the relationship of the relative path name in the drive is maintained, and the drive mount position on the directory tree can be configured to be identifiable from the program or the device driver, which is an essential obstacle in implementing the present invention. Not something.

[0018]

As is apparent from the above embodiments, the optical disk and the optical disk recording / reproducing apparatus of the present invention, when using a partial ROM disk having many files and a deep directory structure, execute an executable file every time the disk is replaced. Since the application can be executed without having to specify the stored directory group, that is, the execution path, the usability is greatly improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of an optical disc according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram showing an outline of an optical disk recording / reproducing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of a conventional optical disk.

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram showing an outline of a conventional optical disk recording / reproducing apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 partial ROM disk 2 read-only sector area 3 recording / reproducing sector area 4 path name registration area 5 disk definition area 6 partial ROM disk 7 optical disk drive 8 host computer 9 optical disk device driver program

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Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A reproduction-only data area, a recording / reproduction data area, and a disk definition area, wherein at least an executable computer program and an execution path for the computer program are recorded in the reproduction-only data area.
An identifier indicating that the disk is a disk on which an execution path is recorded in the disk definition area, and the recording position of the execution path is at a predetermined sector position. 2. An optical disk, comprising: an optical disk; an optical disk recording / reproducing means; and a host computer, wherein when the optical disk is loaded on the optical disk recording / reproducing means, the optical disk recording / reproducing means reads an area in which an execution path is recorded. However, an optical disc recording / reproducing apparatus in which the host computer automatically sets an execution path corresponding to a computer program recorded on the optical disc.