JPH0240164A - Method for protecting hard disk device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable protective action to be taken without requiring the operation of an operator by withdrawing the magnetic head of a hard disk device to a landing zone based on the off information of a main power source switch in an information equipment, and cutting off the feed of a power source part after the lapse of a constant time. CONSTITUTION:The magnetic head of the hard disk device 1 is withdrawn to the landing zone 2b based on the off information of the main power source switch in the information equipment, and the feed of the power source part 6 is cut off after the lapse of the constant time since the off information is generated in the main power source switch 3. Since the feed is stopped after completing the protective action is taken by performing such processing, it is not feared to damage a disk 2. In such a way, it is possible to take the protective action of the disk without requiring the operation of the operator and also, without lowering the processing speed of a system.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a method for protecting a hard disk device, and more particularly, to a method for protecting a hard disk device when the power of an information device is turned off.

(Prior Art) In recent years, information devices to which a hard disk device is connected as an auxiliary storage device have become contradictory. Hard disk devices are becoming smaller, larger in capacity, and lower in price year by year.

Such low-cost hard disk drives use stepping motors instead of conventional voice coil motors for head drive (positioning). The disk of an apparatus using a stepping motor as described above has a section for recording data and a landing zone (also called C8S zone) to protect the head when the power is turned on/off. When the power is turned off, the head is moved above this landing zone and then the power is turned off. This is a measure to protect the media from mechanical damage to the media during transportation due to the head being in the data area, data destruction due to external magnetism, and the like. Examples of such treatment methods include the following.

■When the information equipment is powered off, the operator operates a specific key to take this protective measure.

■If the hard disk drive is not accessed for a certain period of time, move the head to the landing zone and prepare for power off.

■Move the head to the landing zone in fixed access units that suit the system.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) However, the above treatment method has the following drawbacks.

That is, according to the method (2) above, an operator's operation is required, and operation errors (forgetting operations) are likely to occur.

Furthermore, in the methods (2) and (3) above, an operator is not required or the software that controls the disk becomes a burden. When the head that has been moved to the landing zone is returned to read/write data, the processing time increases and the processing capacity of the system decreases.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and its purpose is to provide a hard disk drive that can perform disk protection without requiring operator operations and without reducing processing speed. The purpose is to realize a protection method.

(Means for Solving the Problems) The present invention solves the above problems, in an information device used with a hard disk device, the magnetic head of the hard disk device is evacuated to a landing zone based on information on turning off the main power switch of the information device. This system is characterized in that the power supply to the power supply section is cut off after a certain period of time after the off information is generated at the main power switch.

(Operation) When the output power switch is turned off, the magnetic head of the hard disk drive is first driven onto the landing zone. After that, the power supply to the power supply section is cut off.

(Example) Examples of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the structure of an example of an apparatus for implementing the method of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a time chart showing the operating state of the method of the present invention. In this figure, 1 is a hard disk device, and 2 is a disk of the hard disk device 1. 2a is a data surface where data is recorded, and 2b is a C8S zone where the head is retracted. 3 is equipment (information equipment)
The power switch 4 is an off-delay control circuit for exciting the excitation winding of the contactor when the power switch 3 is turned on, and de-exciting the contactor's excitation winding after one second when the power switch 3 is turned off. be. Incidentally, this off-delay control circuit 4 generates an off signal to the CPU when the power is turned off. 5 is a contactor 16 which is excited from the off-delay 4 and turns on/off the AClooV, is a power supply unit which converts the AC 100V from the contactor 5 into a desired voltage and supplies power; 7 is a disk which supplies power to the hard disk device 1 A power supply 8 is a power supply for the information processing unit that supplies power to the information processing unit, 9 is an information processing unit that controls each part of the device and provides control signals to the hard disk device 1, and 10 is an information processing unit that outputs various control commands and controls the disk 2. The CPU 11 that outputs the protection control command is a disk control circuit that outputs the protection control command from the CPU10 as a disk control signal.

The operation of this embodiment will be explained below using FIGS. 1 and 2.

When the power switch 3 of the information equipment is operated and turned on (FIG. 2(b)), the off-delay control circuit #I4 starts excitation of the excitation winding of the contactor 5 (FIG. 2(C)).
D). As a result, from contactor 5, AClooV
is output, and is supplied to the disk power supply 7 and the information processing section power supply 8 (Fig. 2 (d)).The disk power supply 7 and the information processing section power supply 8 receive the supply of this AClooV, and are supplied with predetermined values. Power is supplied with DC voltage (Fig. 2 (e)).

That is, the disk power supply 7 converts the voltage into a DC voltage necessary for the hard disk drive 1, and the power supply 8 for the information processing section converts the DC voltage into the DC voltage necessary for the information processing section 9 to supply power.

In this state, the device is performing normal operations.

That is, when there is a request to record/read data, the hard disk device 1 is driven to read/write data. At this time, the data is on the data surface 2a of the disk 2.
is written in. Therefore, the head has data surface 2a
is moving on the desired track.

When the device operation is finished and the power switch 3 is turned off, the off-tilt control circuit 4 sends the OFF signal to the CPU10.
(Fig. 2 Cf)). Then, after T seconds, the contactor is de-energized (FIG. 2(c)). C.P.U.I.
Upon receiving this OFF signal, O provides a protection control command for protecting the disk to the disk control circuit 11.

In response to this protection control command, the disk control circuit 11 provides the hard disk device 1 with a disk control signal for moving the head of the hard disk device to the C8S zone. The hard disk device 1 receives this disk control signal and retreats the head on the data surface to the C8S zone (FIG. 2 (g)).

The delay time T is determined so that T>t, where t is the time required for this head evacuation (protective action). In this way, the power supply is stopped after this protective measure is completed, so there is no risk of damaging the distor.

As an example, when T=0.5 to 0.6 seconds, good results were obtained.

As explained above, in the present invention, since the disk is protected by using the off state of the power switch,
Compared to the protection provided by the operator's specific key operations, it is easy to forget to operate them. Furthermore, since the protection process is released until the power switch is turned off, the processing speed of the system does not decrease.

Note that the off-delay amount has a good deviation in setting (several hundred milliseconds) based on the maximum seek time of the disk, and the operator does not feel uncomfortable when turning off the power.

In addition, the timer and contactor of the off-delay control circuit 4
The contacts 5 and the like are not limited to mechanical ones, and semiconductor switching elements may be used.

(Effects of the Invention) As described in detail above, in the present invention, the OFF state of the power switch is used to protect the disk. As a result, it is possible to realize a hard disk device protection method that can perform disk protection without requiring operator operations and without reducing system processing speed.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of the structure of an apparatus for carrying out the method of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a time chart during operation of the apparatus shown in FIG. 1...Hard disk device 2...Disk 3...Power switch 4.
...Off-tilley control circuit 5...Contactor 6...Power supply unit 7...Disk power supply 8...Power supply for information processing unit 9...Information processing unit 10...CPU 11...
・Disk control circuit

Claims (1)

[Claims] In an information device used with a hard disk device, the magnetic head of the hard disk device is retracted to a landing zone based on off information of the main power switch of the information device, and the off information is generated in the main power switch. A method for protecting a hard disk device, characterized by cutting off power supply from a power supply unit after a certain period of time has elapsed.