JPH10320125A - Virtual HDD system using CD-R / CD-RW disks - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Problem] A CD-R and CD-RW disk drive cannot be used as a storage device in a system in which high-speed reading / writing is required due to a low access speed to the drive. However, in the present invention, a CD-R disc or a CD-RW disc is
It can be used as a storage device in a system that requires high-speed reading and writing. SOLUTION: In a CD-R / RW drive system connected to a personal computer having a storage device by an interface, means for making a CD-R / RW disk an extended storage area of a high-speed storage device is provided.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a CD-R (write-once) disk or a CD-RW (rewritable type).
The present invention relates to a virtual HDD system that enables high-speed reading and writing of disk data.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Hitherto, as a system using a CD-R and a CD-RW media (CD-R / RW disk) drive, a mastering system, a backup system and the like are known.

[0003]

A system using a CD-R and CD-RW media (CD-R disk or CD-RW disk) described in the prior art has a low access speed to the drive. In a system that requires high-speed reading / writing, it cannot be used as a storage device. An object of the present invention is to enable a CD-R disc or a CD-RW disc (hereinafter, referred to as a CD-R / RW disc) to be used as a storage device in a system that requires high-speed reading / writing. .

[0004]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, in a CD-R / RW drive system connected to a personal computer having a storage device via an interface, a CD-R / RW disk is expanded in an extended storage area of the storage device. Is provided.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the virtual HD of the first aspect is provided.
In the D system, control means for controlling the timing of writing data to a CD-R / RW disc is provided.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the virtual HDD system of the first or second aspect, a new CD-R /
Means is provided for reading the directory information into the storage device when the RW disc is inserted into the drive.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the virtual HDD system according to any one of the first to third aspects, when a data read instruction is issued from a personal computer, the data is not stored in the storage device and the CD-R / When the data is stored on the RW disc, the CD-R / RW
Means are provided for reading data from a disk into a storage device and thereafter accessing the same data to the storage device.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the virtual HDD system of the first to third aspects, when a data write instruction is issued from a personal computer, if the data is stored in the storage device, the data is stored. Means is provided for updating data stored in the device and writing the data to the storage device when the data is not stored in the storage device.

[0009]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of a virtual HDD system according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. In the virtual HDD system of the present invention, the CD-
If the storage space of the R / RW disk can be used as an extended storage area of the storage device, it can be sufficiently used as a storage device even in a system that requires high-speed reading and writing. Focusing on the point, it is configured as described below.

First Embodiment The first embodiment corresponds to the first and second aspects of the present invention, and the first aspect of the present invention is a basic invention. The first embodiment is characterized in that the storage space of a CD-R / RW disc is used as an extended storage area of a storage device capable of high-speed reading and writing. The invention of claim 2).

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram showing an example of an embodiment of a main configuration of the virtual HDD system of the present invention. In the drawing, 1 is a PC (personal computer), 2 is a storage device, 2a is a predetermined area in the storage device 2, 3 is a CD-R / RW disc, and 4 is a CD-R /
Indicates an RW drive.

An outline of the configuration and functions of the system shown in FIG. 1 is as follows. A PC (personal computer) 1 has a built-in CPU, and has a storage device 2 and a CD.
-The R / RW drive 4 is connected by an interface such as IDE or SCSI. The storage device 2 is a high-speed readable / writable storage device such as a hard disk drive (HDD). In the system of FIG. 1, the user of the PC 1 does not directly access the CD-R / RW disc 3,
Only the storage device 2 is accessed. In this case, data written to the predetermined area 2a in the storage device 2 is automatically saved on the CD-R / RW disc 3, so that
The storage space of the R / RW disk 3 becomes an extended storage area of the storage device 2 (the invention of claim 1).

The data written in the predetermined area 2a in the storage device 2 is automatically transferred to the CD-R / RW disc 3.
The program to be saved to is set to the lowest priority among the processes running in the PC 1 and utilizes the time when other processes are not running, and
Writing to the DR / RW disc 3 is performed.
Invention). In the first embodiment, as described above,
Since a CD-R / RW disk is provided as an extended storage area of the storage device and a control unit for controlling a timing of writing data to the CD-R / CD-RW disk is provided, the user can use the CD-R / RW disk. It is possible to read and write large amounts of data quickly without being aware of the disk.

Second Embodiment The second embodiment corresponds to the third and fourth aspects of the present invention, but is an improved invention based on the first and second aspects of the present invention. is there. In the first embodiment, the CD-
The processing when the storage space of the R / RW disk is used as the extended storage area of the storage device has been described. The second embodiment also has a common feature that the storage space of a CD-R / RW disc is used as an extended storage area of a storage device, but a new CD-R / RW disc is inserted into a drive. In this case, the directory information is read into the storage device (the invention of claim 3), the data on the CD-R / RW disc is read on the storage device (the invention of claim 4), and a write instruction is issued. It is characterized in that data is updated or written on the storage device (the invention of claim 5). The hardware configuration is the same as in FIG.

In the second embodiment, the PC 1 shown in FIG.
Has a new CD-R / RW drive in the CD-R / RW drive 4.
It is checked whether the disc 3 has been inserted, and when a new CD-R / RW disc 3 has been inserted, the directory information is copied to a predetermined area 2a in the storage device 2 (the invention of claim 3). Also, in order that data on the CD-R / RW disc 3 can be read on the storage device 2, data that is not stored on the storage device 2
When the data corresponding to the / RW disk 3 is stored, the data is read from the CD-R / RW disk 3 into the storage device 2, and the same data thereafter is accessed from the storage device 2.

More specifically, the user requests the storage device 2
When there is an instruction to read data stored in the predetermined area 2a in the storage device 2 and the specified data already exists in the predetermined area 2a in the storage device 2, the data is transferred from the predetermined area 2a to the PC 1. Read and transfer data.
Also, the designated data is stored in the predetermined area 2a in the storage device 2.
If the data does not exist, the data is copied from the CD-R / RW disc 3 to a predetermined area 2a in the storage device 2, and then the data is read from the predetermined area 2a to the PC 1 and transferred. invention). In addition, from the user,
When an instruction to write data to the predetermined area 2a in the storage device 2 is issued, and when the specified data already exists in the predetermined area 2a in the storage device 2, the predetermined area in the storage device 2 is specified. The designated data in 2a is updated, and when the designated data does not exist in the predetermined area 2a in the storage device 2, the data instructed to write is written in the predetermined area 2a in the storage device 2 (claim Item 5). The above operation is shown in a flowchart.

FIGS. 2 and 3 show a CD-R / RW according to a second embodiment of the virtual HDD system of the present invention.
6 is a flowchart showing a main processing flow when writing / reading data to / from a disk. In the figure, #
Steps 1 to # 13 indicate connection.

In step # 1, the PC 1 inserts a new CD-ROM.
It monitors whether the R / RW disc 3 has been inserted into the CD-R / RW drive 4. If it is not inserted into the new CD-R / RW drive 4, the process proceeds to step # 2, and it is determined whether another process is performed. If another process is to be performed, the process proceeds to step # 13, another process is performed, and the flow in FIGS. 2 and 3 ends. Also, as a result of the determination in the previous step # 2, when another process is not performed, the previous step # 1 is performed again.
Return to

On the other hand, as a result of the determination made in step # 1, the new CD-R / RW disc 3
When inserted into the RW drive 4, the process proceeds to step # 3, where directory information on the CD-R / RW disc 3 is copied to a predetermined area 2a in the storage device 2 (the invention of claim 3). Proceeding to step # 4, it is determined whether a read command has been output from the user (PC1) to the predetermined area 2a in the storage device 2. When the read command is output, the process proceeds to step # 5, and it is determined whether the data specified by the user (PC1) already exists in the predetermined area 2a in the storage device 2. If the data exists in the predetermined area 2a in the storage device 2, the process proceeds to step # 6, the data in the predetermined region 2a is read into the PC 1 (the invention of claim 4), and the process proceeds to step # 8.

Further, as a result of the judgment in the previous step # 5,
If the data does not exist in the predetermined area 2a in the storage device 2, the process proceeds to step # 7, where the data specified from the CD-R / RW disc 3 is transferred to the predetermined area 2a in the storage device 2.
And reads the data into the PC 1 (invention 4), and proceeds to step # 8. Further, as a result of the determination in the previous step # 4, when the read command is not output from the user (PC1) to the predetermined area 2a in the storage device 2, the process proceeds to step # 9 in FIG.
It is determined whether a write command has been output from C1) to the predetermined area 2a in the storage device 2.

When no write instruction has been output,
Go to step # 8 in FIG. When the user (PC1) outputs a write command to the predetermined area 2a in the storage device 2, the process proceeds to step # 10, and the process proceeds to step # 10.
It is determined whether the data specified by C1) already exists in the predetermined area 2a in the storage device 2. If the designated data exists in the predetermined area 2a in the storage device 2, the data in the predetermined area 2a is updated in step # 11 (the invention of claim 5), and the data is updated in step # 8 in FIG. Proceed to. On the other hand, if the specified data does not exist in the predetermined area 2a in the storage device 2, the process proceeds to step # 12.
Then, the data of the predetermined area 2a is newly created (the invention of claim 5), and the process proceeds to step # 8 of FIG.

In step # 8, it is determined whether or not another processing is to be performed. When performing another process, proceed to step # 13,
Another processing is performed, and the flow of FIGS. 2 and 3 is terminated.
When another process is not performed, the previous step # 4 is performed again.
Then, the same processing is performed. Steps # 1 to # 1 above
When a new CD-R / RW disc 3 is inserted into the drive 4 by the processing of step 3, its directory information is copied to the storage device 2, so that the subsequent CD-R / RW
Since data management on the RW disk 3 can be performed speedily (the invention of claim 3), and data reading on the CD-R / RW disk 3 is performed on the storage device 2 capable of high-speed processing, The user can quickly read and write a large amount of data without being conscious of the CD-R / RW disc (the invention of claim 4).

[0023]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, in the virtual HDD system using the CD-R / RW disk, the storage space of the CD-R / RW disk is used as an extended storage area of the storage device. Therefore, the user can quickly read and write a large amount of data without being conscious of the CD-R / RW disc.

In the virtual HDD system using a CD-R / RW disk according to a second aspect of the present invention, in the virtual HDD system according to the first aspect, C is assigned the lowest priority among the processes automatically operating in the personal computer.
Writing to a DR / RW disc is performed. Therefore, similarly to the effect of the virtual HDD system of the first aspect, the user can quickly read and write a large amount of data without being conscious of the CD-R / RW disk.

In the virtual HDD system according to the third aspect of the present invention, in the virtual HDD system according to the first or second aspect, when a new CD-R / RW disk is inserted into the drive, the directory information is stored. To the storage device. Therefore, in addition to the effect of the virtual HDD system according to claim 1 or 2, it is possible to speedily manage data on the CD-R / RW disk thereafter.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the virtual HDD system using the CD-R / RW disk, in the virtual HDD system according to the first to third aspects, data on the CD-R / RW disk is read on a storage device. I have to.
Therefore, similarly to the effects of the virtual HDD system of claims 1 to 3, the user can quickly read and write large-capacity data without being conscious of the CD-R / RW disk.

In a virtual HDD system using a CD-R / RW disk according to a fifth aspect, in the virtual HDD system according to the first to third aspects, when a data write instruction is issued from a personal computer, the data is stored in a storage device. Is stored, the data stored in the storage device is updated, and when the data is not stored in the storage device, the data is written to the storage device. Therefore, similarly to the effect of the virtual HDD system according to the first to third aspects, the user can use the CD-ROM.
A large amount of data can be read and written quickly without being aware of an R / RW disk.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram showing an example of an embodiment of a main configuration of a virtual HDD system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows a second example of the virtual HDD system of the present invention.
10 is a flowchart showing a main processing flow at the time of writing / reading data to / from a CD-R / RW disc according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 shows a second example of the virtual HDD system of the present invention.
10 is a flowchart showing a main processing flow at the time of writing / reading data to / from a CD-R / RW disc according to the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... PC, 2 ... Storage device, 2a ... Predetermined area in storage device 2, 3 ... CD-R / RW disc, 4 ... CD
-R / RW drive

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A CD-R / CD-R connected via an interface to a personal computer having a storage device
A virtual HDD system in a W drive system, comprising means for using a CD-R / CD-RW disk as an extended storage area of a storage device. 2. The virtual HDD system according to claim 1, further comprising control means for controlling timing of writing data to a CD-R / CD-RW disc. 3. The virtual HDD system according to claim 1, further comprising means for reading directory information into a storage device when a new CD-R / CD-RW disc is inserted into the drive. Virtual HDD system. 4. The virtual HDD system according to claim 1, wherein when a data read instruction is issued from a personal computer, the data is not stored in the storage device, and the
When the data is stored on a DR / CD-RW disc, the data is read from the CD-R / CD-RW disc into the storage device, and then the same data is accessed by the storage device. A virtual HDD system, comprising: 5. The virtual HDD system according to claim 1, wherein when a data write instruction is issued from a personal computer, if the data is stored in the storage device, the data is stored in the storage device. Update the data
A virtual HDD system comprising means for writing the data to the storage device when the data is not stored in the storage device.