JP3501169B2 - Information 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 information recording / reproducing apparatus using an exchangeable information storage medium.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, in an information recording / reproducing apparatus using an exchangeable information storage medium such as a magneto-optical disk device, in order to prevent data recorded on the information storage medium from being logically or physically destroyed, It is necessary not to eject the information storage medium during an operation such as recording, reproducing or erasing on the information recording medium.

Therefore, conventionally, the information recording / reproducing apparatus informs that an operation such as recording, reproducing or erasing on the information recording medium is being performed by lighting an indicator lamp, and the user turns off the indicator lamp. During this time, the information recording medium was exchanged.

[0004]

However, when the information recording / reproducing apparatus exchanges a large amount of data for recording / reproducing with a host apparatus such as a host computer, recording / reproducing or erasing is intermittently performed. Repeat the operation of. The information recording / reproducing apparatus is in a state in which no operation such as recording, reproducing or erasing on the information recording medium is carried out between the intermittent operations, and the indicator lamp is turned off by the user. Know what you are doing.

However, even during the above operation, one file access from the upper apparatus to the information recording / reproducing apparatus is still continuing. Therefore, here, if the user judges that the information recording medium can be taken out because the indicator lamp is off, or carelessly presses the information recording medium ejecting switch to the information recording / reproducing apparatus. If the information recording medium is requested to be ejected and the information recording medium is ejected, the data on the information recording medium may be destroyed.

Further, recently, a host device has been provided with a cache function in order to improve the data transfer efficiency with the information recording / reproducing device, and a part of the data to be transferred to the information recording / reproducing device for the cache function has been provided. If there is a state that the cache memory of the host device still remains, and the information recording medium is ejected in this state, or if it is ejected and replaced with another information recording medium, the data will be saved as in the previous example. There is a risk of destruction.

Generally, in recording data on an information recording medium, a place where data is recorded on the information recording medium and a place for writing information for managing the arrangement of the recorded data are physically separated. Therefore, when the information recording / reproducing apparatus records the data on the information recording medium, it is necessary to write the data in the place where the data should be recorded and to update the information for managing the arrangement of the data. It is necessary to move to a place where the information should be written and write the information, and the above-mentioned "state where the indicator is turned off" during the movement. Generally, the turn-off time in this case is not long enough to allow the user to decide that the information recording medium can be taken out, but if the user carelessly presses the information recording medium eject switch, the information recording medium is ejected. The recorded data may be destroyed.

As described above, in the conventional information recording / reproducing apparatus, the data in the information recording medium is destroyed because it easily responds to the user's request for ejecting the information recording medium during the file access from the host apparatus. There was a risk that

An object of the present invention is to provide an information recording / reproducing apparatus which prohibits the ejection of an information storage medium during file access from a host device and prevents the data in the information recording medium from being destroyed. .

[0010]

To this end, according to the present invention, the optimum waiting time after execution of each instruction is set in advance, and when an instruction relating to file access is received from another device, first, the information recording medium Ejection is prohibited, the received command is executed, the set waiting time is measured after execution of the command, and when the command is received while the set waiting time is being measured, the received command is executed again to record information. While the ejection of the medium is prohibited, the ejection of the information recording medium is permitted when the set waiting time elapses.

The predetermined waiting time is set in accordance with the type of command received from another device.

The predetermined waiting time is obtained by measuring a predetermined waiting time after execution of an instruction immediately before the received instruction, and measuring the waiting time at the received instruction as the waiting time at the immediately preceding instruction. During the measurement of, the waiting time set after the execution of the immediately preceding instruction,
Comparing with a predetermined waiting time in the received command,
The longer time is set as the predetermined waiting time in the received command.

Further, while the waiting time is measured after the received command is executed, an error is reported to a command for ejecting an information recording medium from another device.

[0014]

Therefore, when an instruction related to file access is received from another device, the ejection of the information recording medium is prohibited, and the ejection prohibition is maintained for the waiting time even after the execution of the instruction is completed. If the next command is received, the ejection of the information recording medium will continue to be prohibited. Further, when measuring the waiting time after the execution of the instruction, if there is an instruction to eject the information recording medium from another device by the user, by reporting an error to the other device, The user can be notified that the discharge is prohibited.

[0015]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the configuration of an information recording / reproducing apparatus 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, I / F
The control unit 2 controls the interface between the information recording / reproducing apparatus 1 and the host device. The switch detector 3 monitors an eject button (not shown) for ejecting the information storage medium 7 from the information recording / reproducing apparatus 1, and when the eject button is pressed, it notifies the apparatus controller 4 of that fact.

The device controller 4 controls the entire information recording / reproducing device 1. The read / write control unit 5 controls direct operations such as writing and reading of data with respect to the information recording medium 7 loaded in the information recording / reproducing apparatus 1. The loading control unit 6 monitors the insertion of the information recording medium 7, and the user sets the information recording medium 7 to the information recording / reproducing apparatus 1.
If the information recording / reproducing apparatus 1 tries to insert the information recording medium 7 into the information recording / reproducing apparatus 1 at a predetermined position where the information recording / reproducing apparatus 1 can perform a predetermined operation, the apparatus control unit 4 ejects the information recording medium 7. If there is an instruction to do, the information recording medium 7 is ejected according to the instruction.

In the above configuration, the information storage medium 7
The device controller 4 controls the loading controller 6
On the other hand, it is realized by not giving an instruction to eject the information recording medium 7 even if the user requests ejection.

The operation of the present embodiment configured as described above will be specifically described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3.

In FIG. 3, instructions 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
Represents a command group transmitted in time series from the host device to the information recording / reproducing device 1. Of these, instructions 1, 2 and 3 are a group of instructions that make up one file access, and instructions 4 and 5 are another group of instructions that make up another file access. Here, each file access will be referred to as file access 1 and file access 2.

First, at time T1A, the device control section 4 receives the command 1 from the host device (101), immediately prohibits the ejection of the information recording medium 7 (102), and then by the host device by T1B. The operation according to the received command 1 is executed (103), and from T1B to T1C, if there is no next command, the measurement of a predetermined waiting time is started (104), and the process waits until this time passes (105-105). 106) Command 2 is received at the time of this waiting T2A (Yes in 105
Then, the device control unit 4 executes the procedure of FIG. 2 again from the beginning, and updates the prohibition state of the ejection of the information recording medium 7 started at time T1A when the command 1 is received at T2A (102).

When the instruction 3 is received at the time T3A (Yes at 105) in the same manner as above even after the execution of the instruction 2, the prohibition state of the ejection of the information recording medium 7 which started from T1A is updated again at T3A. (102). Instruction 3 is
Since it is the last command in the command group of file access 1, the next command is not received until the predetermined waiting time has passed (Yes in 106), and the ejection of the information recording medium 7 is permitted at the time T3C. (107) is performed.

Up to this point, the processing relating to the file access 1 is completed, and until the instruction 4 which is the first instruction of the instruction group constituting the file access 2 and is unrelated to the file access 1, is received, that is, T3C to T4
Until A, the user is permitted to eject the information recording medium 7 from the information recording / reproducing apparatus 1. The procedure of file access 2 after T4A is also repeated in the same manner as file access 1.

In this way, the ejection of the information recording medium 7 is prohibited during one file access, so that the destruction of data can be surely prevented.

By the way, in the above embodiment, during the predetermined waiting time (T3B-T3C in FIG. 3) that accompanies the last instruction of the instruction group that constitutes one file access.
However, although the file access has already been completed, the ejection of the information recording medium 7 is still prohibited. Reducing this time is meaningful because it does not unnecessarily prolong the period of emission ban. For that purpose, a method of optimally setting the waiting time associated with an instruction according to the type of the instruction can be considered.

The embodiment will be specifically described with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5.

In FIG. 5, instructions 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
Represents a command group transmitted in time series from the host device to the information recording / reproducing device 1. Among these, the instructions 1, 2 and 3 are a group of instructions that make up one file access, and the instructions 4, 5 are another group of instructions that make up another file access. Here, each file access will be referred to as file access 1 and file access 2.

First, at time T1A, the device control unit 4 receives the command 1 from the host device (201), immediately prohibits the ejection of the information recording medium 7 (202), and then by the host device by T1B. The operation according to the received instruction 1 is executed (203), a predetermined waiting time is set according to the type of the instruction 1 (204), and the waiting time is measured from T1B to T1C if there is no next instruction. It starts (205) and waits (206-207) until this time elapses. Command 2 is received at the time of this waiting T2A (Yes in 206)
Then, the device control unit 4 executes the procedure of FIG. 4 again from the beginning, and updates the prohibition state of the ejection of the information recording medium 7 started at time T1A when the command 1 is received at T2A (20).
2).

When the command 3 is received at the time T3A (Yes in 206) in the same manner as above even after the execution of the command 2, the prohibition state of the ejection of the information recording medium 7 started from T1A is updated again at T3A. (202). Instruction 3 is
Since it is the last command in the command group of file access 1, the next command is not received during the waiting time corresponding to the type of command 3 (Yes in 207). Therefore, at the time of T3C, the information recording medium The discharge of 7 is permitted (208).

Up to this point, the processing relating to the file access 1 is completed and until the instruction 4 which is the first instruction of the instruction group constituting the next file access 2 which is not related to the file access 1 is received, that is, , T3C to T
Until 4A, the user is permitted to eject the information recording medium 7 from the information recording / reproducing apparatus 1. Also, T4A
The procedure of the subsequent file access 2 is also repeated in the same manner as the file access 1.

As described above, the waiting time after execution of the received command is optimally set according to the type of command.
As a result of the ejection of the information recording medium 7 being prohibited during one file access, data destruction can be surely prevented, and at the same time, the wait associated with the last instruction of the instruction group constituting one file access is performed. Time (T3 in FIG. 5
(B to T3C correspond thereto), the extra ejection prohibition time can be shortened because it is optimally set according to the type of the command. That is, as shown in FIG.
Access 1 is composed of instructions 1, 2, and 3, and
Access 2 is composed of instructions 4 and 5. these
File access includes data write processing and data
Data transfer processing, data reading processing, and the like. Also, each
Examples of each command that makes up a file access include
If file access 1 is a data write process,
Recording / playback in addition to data block write processing commands
There are instructions to check various states of the device. In addition,
If the file access 2 is a data transfer process,
It is said that it will be read in units of
In addition to processing instructions, check various states of the recording / playback device.
Commands to check the status of the transfer destination file, etc.
is there. During standby, which is required to be provided after the completion of these various commands
The interval differs depending on each command. For example, the instruction
Is a block unit data write processing instruction,
Set a long wait time to prevent data corruption
There is a need. On the other hand, in the case of status check command, data
Since there is no risk of damaging the
It Therefore, the waiting time associated with each instruction is specified in advance.
By setting the optimum time according to the type,
Accompanies the last instruction that makes up a file access
The waiting time is also optimally set according to the type of instruction.
If the last instruction is like a status check instruction,
Has the advantage that it can be discharged in a short time.

In the above embodiment, the user requests the information recording / reproducing apparatus 1 to eject the information recording medium 7 by optimally setting the predetermined time to wait after executing the received command. In this case, the request can be prevented from being ignored unnecessarily, but if there is an instruction with a short predetermined time to wait between instructions with a predetermined long time to wait in one file access, However, the ejection of the information recording medium may be permitted. The embodiment described below is to solve the problem.

A detailed description will be given with reference to FIGS. 6 and 7. In FIG. 7, commands 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 represent a command group transmitted from the host device to the information recording / reproducing device 1 in time series. Of these, instructions 1, 2 and 3 are
The instruction group that constitutes one file access, and the instructions 4 and 5 are another instruction group that constitutes another file access. Here, each file access will be referred to as file access 1 and file access 2.

First, at time T1A, the device control unit 4 receives the command 1 from the host device (301), immediately prohibits the ejection of the information recording medium 7 (302), and then by the host device by T1B. The operation according to the received command 1 is executed (303), and a predetermined waiting time is set according to the type of command 1 (304). Next, it is checked whether the command immediately before the command 1 just received is waiting for a predetermined time (30
5).

In this case, since the waiting time by the instruction immediately before the instruction 1 is not in progress (No in 305), T1B to T1
Up to C, if there is no next command, measurement of a predetermined waiting time is started (308), and waiting until this time elapses (3
09-310), if the command 2 is received at the time T2A during this waiting (Yes in 309), the device control unit 4 executes the procedure of FIG. 6 from the beginning, and the time T1A when the command 1 is received. The prohibition state of the ejection of the information recording medium 7 started from is updated at T2A (302). Then, by T2B, the operation according to the instruction 2 is executed (303), and the predetermined waiting time is set according to the type of the instruction 2 (304).

Next, it is checked whether the command immediately before the command 2 just received is waiting for a predetermined time (305). In this case, the instruction 1 immediately before is waiting (Y of 305).
es), the waiting time set in the immediately preceding instruction 1 is compared with the waiting time of the instruction 2 set this time. In this case, the waiting time set in the instruction 1 is T1B-
T1C, and the waiting time set in instruction 2 is T
Since it is 2B-T2D, T1B-T1C is T2B-
Since it is longer than T2D (Yes in 306), T1B− set in instruction 1 is set as the predetermined waiting time of instruction 2.
The time corresponding to T1C is set (307). That is, T1B-T1C and T2B-T2C are equal to each other.

Next, while waiting for the set time, command 3 is received (Yes in 309) at the time T3A in the same manner as above, and the ejection of the information recording medium 7 starting from T1A is prohibited. The status is updated again at T3A (3
02). The command 3 is the last command in the command group of the file access 1, and in this case, the predetermined waiting time set (304) according to the type of the command 3 is set in the command 2 immediately before. Since it is longer than the waiting time corresponding to T1B-T1C, the actual waiting time becomes the original waiting time of the instruction 3, that is, the time corresponding to T3B-T3C, and the next instruction is executed until the predetermined waiting time elapses. Since it is not received (Yes in 310), the ejection of the information recording medium 7 is permitted (311) at the time of T3C.

Up to this point, the execution of the instruction group relating to the file access 1 is completed, and the instruction 4 which is the first instruction of the instruction group constituting the next file access 2 and which is not related to the file access 1 is received. Between, ie T3
From C to T4A, the user is permitted to eject the information recording medium 7 from the information recording / reproducing apparatus 1. The procedure of file access 2 after T4A is also repeated in the same manner as file access 1.

In this way, if nothing is done, the ejection of the information recording medium will be permitted T2 in FIG.
The D-T3A time is compared with the original waiting time of the command that has just received the predetermined time to wait and the predetermined waiting time set in the command that has just been received, and the longer one is the actual time. By setting the waiting time, it is possible to keep the ejection of the information recording medium prohibited, and it is possible to prevent the ejection of the information recording medium from being permitted during one file access. It is possible to prevent an unnecessarily long waiting time associated with the last instruction of the instruction group that constitutes one file access.

By the way, in each of the embodiments described above, even if the user requests the ejection of the information recording medium 7 during one file access, the data is not destroyed because the request is not met. However, as a user, the eject-prohibited state between commands constituting one file access is that the information recording / reproducing apparatus independently executes the information recording medium even if the request is made. If you do not discharge 7, you will feel useless anxiety. To prevent this, when a user's command to eject an information recording medium is received from the host device during the waiting time, an error report indicating that ejection is prohibited may be returned to the host device to notify the user.
The embodiment will be specifically described with reference to FIGS. 8 and 9.

In FIG. 9, commands 1, 2 and 3 represent a command group constituting one file access transmitted in time series from the host device to the information recording / reproducing device 1.

When the eject command is received (401) at the time T4 between T2B and T3A, the period between T2B and T3A is waiting for a predetermined time (Yes in 402).
An error is reported (403) to the host device. T3
When the discharge command is received at T5 (401) after C, it is not waiting for a predetermined time (N of 402).
o), the information recording medium 7 is ejected (404). As described above, since the user is informed of that during the standby for the predetermined time, the anxiety of the user is eliminated.

[0043]

As described above, according to the present invention, a waiting time is set after the operation according to the information recording medium processing command is executed, and the ejection of the information recording medium is prohibited during the waiting time. Therefore, it is possible to reliably prevent the destruction of data and shorten the extra discharge prohibition time.
I can .

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an information recording / reproducing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an example of an operation procedure of the information recording / reproducing apparatus.

FIG. 3 is a specific explanatory diagram of the processing of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing another example of the operation procedure of the information recording / reproducing apparatus.

FIG. 5 is a specific explanatory diagram of the processing of FIG.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing another example of the operation procedure of the information recording / reproducing apparatus.

FIG. 7 is a specific explanatory diagram of the processing of FIG.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing another example of the operation procedure of the information recording / reproducing apparatus.

9 is a specific explanatory diagram of the processing of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Information recording / reproducing device 2 I / F control unit 3 Switch detector 4 Device control section 5 Read / write controller 6 Loading controller 7 Information recording medium

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A plurality of lives per one file access
When an instruction is received from another device in an information recording / reproducing apparatus that executes an instruction to perform information recording medium processing operations such as recording, reproducing, and erasing on an exchangeable information recording medium, the information recording medium is ejected. Means for measuring the waiting time after executing the command, determining the reception of the information recording medium processing command while measuring the waiting time, and if there is reception, the information recording medium process received again Means for executing the above, a means for permitting the information recording medium to be ejected after the waiting time has elapsed without receiving the command, and the waiting time according to the type of the information recording medium processing command.
Information recording and reproducing apparatus characterized by having a means for setting Te. 2. The information recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a standby time after execution of the command received last time is compared with a standby time after execution of the command received this time in advance, and the longer time is received this time. An information recording / reproducing apparatus having means for setting an actual waiting time after the execution of the command. 3. The information recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when an information recording medium eject command from the other device is received during the waiting time measurement, it is determined whether the waiting time is being measured or not. For example, an information recording / reproducing apparatus having means for ejecting the information recording medium and reporting an error to the other apparatus during measurement.