JPH0963175A - Magnetic disk controller - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Structure] The magnetic disk controller 1 is the magnetic disk device 1.
Circuit 1 for reading a sector from the magnetic disk 102 in 0
The sector number 32, 33 is extracted from the sector retrieved by the partition information sector retrieving unit 12 which retrieves the identification code 30 from the sector read by using 1 to store the creating unit 13 of the partition table 141 and the created table 141. It comprises a memory 14. The magnetic disk device 10 includes a magnetic disk 102, a circuit 101 for reproducing data on the magnetic disk, a partition 103 in which the magnetic disk 102 is logically divided, and an information sector 1.
It consists of 04. [Effect] The usability for the user is improved, the application can be expanded, and an access error due to wear of the leading sector can be avoided.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a magnetic disk controller, and more particularly to a magnetic disk controller for managing a partition of a magnetic disk.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A central processing unit (hereinafter referred to as a CPU) reads data from or writes data to a magnetic disk, or uses one magnetic disk with a plurality of different operating systems. By partitioning a partition including an arbitrary number of sectors, one magnetic disk device is logically divided into a plurality of magnetic disk devices for management.

Conventionally, a method of managing a partition of a magnetic disk is, for example, as shown in FIG. 4, a physical read sector 404 of a magnetic disk including partition information is read using a sector read circuit 41, and based on this sector. The partition table maker 42 is used to create a partition table 431 including the start sector and end sector of each partition on the memory 43, and subsequent reading and writing of data with respect to the magnetic disk device uses the physical sector based on this partition table. There is a method of converting to sectors (Satoshi Tsuchimoto, "Hard Disk Utilization Handbook", p. 38)
~ 53, Technical Review Company).

[0004]

According to the prior art, (1)
In a system that has already used the physical first sector of the magnetic disk, the partition information cannot be stored here, so the partition cannot be used. (2) The partition information sector is physically accessed by repeated access. When worn, there is a problem that the partition information cannot be read and the magnetic disk cannot be accessed.

An object of the present invention is to perform partition management even in (1) a system that has already used the physical leading sector, or (2) a system in which the physical leading sector of a magnetic disk cannot be used due to wear. Another object of the present invention is to provide a magnetic disk control device capable of achieving the above.

[0006]

According to the present invention, an identification code is placed at the head of a partition information sector. After that, the partition information is placed in any sector of the magnetic disk. At system startup, the partition information sector is searched and the partition table is created in the main memory based on the contents. The subsequent magnetic disk access is performed using this partition table.

[0007]

According to the present invention, by searching the identification code at the beginning of the partition information sector, it is possible to obtain the partition information regardless of which sector exists on the magnetic disk.

[0008]

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

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, a magnetic disk controller 1 is a circuit 11 for reading a sector from a magnetic disk 102 in a magnetic disk device 10, a partition information sector searcher 12 for searching the sector read by the circuit 11 for an identification code 30 of FIG. A partition table creator 13 that creates the partition table 141 by extracting the start sector number 32 and the end sector number 33 of FIG. 3 from the sectors searched by the searcher 12, and a memory 14 that stores the created table 141. .
The magnetic disk device 10 comprises a magnetic disk 102, a circuit 101 for reproducing data on the magnetic disk, a partition 103 obtained by logically dividing the magnetic disk 102, and a partition information sector 104.

Next, the operation of the present invention will be described with reference to the operation flowchart of FIG.

When the system is activated, the readout circuit 1
1 reads 20 the start sector of the magnetic disk. When the sector is read, the searcher 12 checks whether the data in the sector includes the identification code 30.

If the data in the sector does not include the identification code, it is confirmed 22 whether the sector is the last sector in the magnetic disk, and if it is not the last sector, the next sector is read. If it is the last sector of the magnetic disk, it is determined that the partition is not set, and the start sector number and the last sector number of the magnetic disk are registered in the partition table 141.

When the data in the sector includes the identification code, the partition table 1 is generated by using the generator 13.
The start sector number and end sector number of each partition are registered in 41.

As described above, reading and writing of data with respect to the magnetic disk device after the partition table is generated according to the operation flowchart of FIG. 2 is performed by converting the logical sector into a physical sector based on the partition table.

In FIG. 1, one partition information sector is used, but the present invention is not limited to this, and a plurality of partition information sectors may be provided.

[0016]

According to the present invention, an identification code is added to the head of a partition information sector so that it can be obtained regardless of which sector on the magnetic disk has partition information. It is possible to perform partition management even in a system that has already used the physical head sector or (2) a system in which the physical head sector of the magnetic disk is no longer usable due to wear. This has the following effects.

(1) The usability of the user in the magnetic disk device can be improved.

(2) It is possible to avoid an access error due to wear of the leading sector.

When a plurality of partition information sectors are provided, even if one partition information sector cannot be read, the partition table can be generated from other information sectors.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a magnetic disk control device.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of an operation for performing partition management.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of contents of a partition information sector.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a conventional device.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Magnetic disk controller, 10 ... Magnetic disk device,
11 ... Sector read circuit, 12 ... Partition information sector detector, 13 ... Partition table generator,
14 ... Memory, 101 ... Data reproducer, 102 ... Magnetic disk, 103 ... Partition, 141 ... Partition table.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Partition information recorded in a physical sector on a magnetic disk is read, and one magnetic disk device is logically divided into a plurality of disk devices based on the read information to read and write data. A magnetic disk controller having a function, comprising a sector identification code of the partition information and a sector searcher of the partition information.