Medium scan method for use in disk device

• US 20070211363A1
• Filed: 06/16/2006
• Published: 09/13/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/13/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toshiba Storage Device Incorporated (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Nagashima, Yasuyuki, Yorimitsu, Keiichi, Sasaki, Kiyotaka
• Granted Patent: US 7,633,695 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 360/55
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 19/041 Detection or prevention of read or write errors
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/2516 Hard disks
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/36 Monitoring, i.e. supervising the progress of recording or reproducing for digital recording G11B20/00 and s.gr.; for monitoring, testing or measuring of TV recorders of the type covered by H04N5/76 and subgroups, see H04N17/06

Abstract

To provide a medium scan method which can be executed for a suitable region at suitable timing, a disk device comprises a storage medium for storing information, a writing unit for writing information to the storage medium by request from an upper device such as a host computer or the like, a medium monitoring unit for monitoring the state of the storage medium, and a medium scan determining unit for determining whether or not to require medium scan for the storage medium.

Claims

1. A disk device, which executes a write process for writing to a storage medium information transmitted from an upper device by request from the upper device, comprising:

a medium monitoring unit for monitoring a state of the storage medium to which the information is written by the write process;

a medium scan determining unit for determining whether or not to require medium scan according to the state of the storage medium; and

a medium scan unit for making the medium scan for a storage medium that said medium scan determining unit determines to require the medium scan.

2. The disk device according to claim 1, wherein:

said medium monitoring unit counts the number of times of the write process from the upper device to the storage medium for each of a predetermined number of partitions into which the storage medium is segmented; and

said medium scan determining unit determines a partition, the write process number of times to which is larger than a predetermined number of times, to be a target of the medium scan.

3. The disk device according to claim 2, wherein

said medium scan determining unit determines a partition, the write process number of times to which is larger than the predetermined number of times, and a predetermined region contiguous to the partition to be a target of the medium scan.

4. The disk device according to claim 1, wherein:

said medium monitoring unit updates an access range including a region to which the write process is executed and counts the number of times of the write process, each time the write process to the storage medium is executed; and

said medium scan determining unit determines the access rage to be a target of the medium scan if the number of times of the write process to the storage medium is larger than a predetermined number of times.

5. The disk device according to claim 4, wherein

said medium scan determining unit determines a region of the access range and a predetermined region contiguous to the access range to be a target of the medium scan.

6. The disk device according to claim 1, wherein:

said medium monitoring unit updates an access range including a region to which the write process is executed and measures an elapsed time from when access monitoring starts, each time the write process to the storage medium is executed; and

said medium scan determining unit determines a medium scan range to be a target of the medium scan if the elapsed time exceeds a predetermined time.

7. The disk device according to claim 6, wherein

said medium scan determining unit determines a region of the access range and a predetermined region contiguous to the access range to be a target of the medium scan.

8. A medium scan method for use in a disk device, which executes a write process for writing to a storage medium information transmitted from an upper device by request from the upper device, comprising:

causing the disk device to execute a medium monitoring process for monitoring a state of the storage medium to which the information is written by the write process;

causing the disk device to execute a medium scan determining process for determining whether or not to require medium scan according to the state of the storage medium; and

causing the disk device to execute a medium scan process for making the medium scan for a storage medium that the medium scan determining process determines to require the medium scan.

9. The medium scan method according to claim 8, wherein

the medium monitoring process counts the number of times of the write process from the upper device to the storage medium for each of a predetermined number of partitions into which the storage medium is segmented;

and

the medium scan determining process determines a partition, the write process number of times to which is larger than a predetermined number of times, to be a target of the medium scan.

10. The medium scan method according to claim 8, wherein:

the medium monitoring process updates an access range including a region to which the write process is executed and counts the number of times of the write process, each time the write process to the storage medium is executed; and

the medium scan determining process determines the access range to be a target of the medium scan if the number of times of the write process to the storage medium is larger than a predetermined number of times.

11. The medium scan method according to claim 8, wherein:

the medium monitoring process updates an access range including a region to which the write process is executed and measures an elapsed time from when access monitoring starts, each time the write process to the storage medium is executed; and

the medium scan determining process determines the access range to be a target of the medium scan if the elapsed time exceeds a predetermined time.

12. A scan controller, comprising:

a medium monitoring unit for monitoring a state of a storage medium to which information is written by a write process for writing to the storage medium the information transmitted from an upper device by request from the upper device;

a medium scan determining unit for determining whether or not to require medium scan according to the state of the storage medium; and

a medium scan unit for making the medium scan for a storage medium that said medium scan determining unit determines to require the medium scan.

13. The scan controller according to claim 12, wherein:

said medium monitoring unit counts the number of times of the write process from the upper device to the storage medium for each of a predetermined number of partitions into which the storage medium is segmented; and

said medium scan determining unit determines a partition, the write process number of times to which is larger than a predetermined number of times, to be a target of the medium scan.

14. The scan controller according to claim 13, wherein

said medium scan determining unit determines a partition whose the write process number of times to which is larger than the predetermined number of times, and a predetermined region contiguous to the partition to be a target of the medium scan.

15. The scan controller according to claim 12, wherein:

said medium monitoring unit updates an access range including a region to which the write process is executed and counts the number of times of the write process, each time the write process to the storage medium is executed; and

said medium scan determining unit determines the access range to be a target of the medium scan if the number of times of the write process to the storage medium is larger than a predetermined number of times.

16. The scan controller according to claim 15, wherein

said medium scan determining unit determines a region of the access range and a predetermined region contiguous to the access range to be a target of the medium scan.

17. The scan controller according to claim 12, wherein:

said medium monitoring unit updates an access range including a region to which the write process is executed and measures an elapsed time from when access monitoring starts, each time the write process to the storage medium is executed; and

said medium scan determining unit determines a medium scan range to be a target of the medium scan if the elapsed time exceeds a predetermined time.

18. The scan controller according to claim 17, wherein

said medium scan determining unit determines a region of the access range and a predetermined region contiguous to the access range to be a target of the medium scan.