Dynamic magnetic information storage or retrieval – General processing of a digital signal – Data in specific format
Reexamination Certificate
1998-05-22
2001-02-27
Faber, Alan T. (Department: 2753)
Dynamic magnetic information storage or retrieval
General processing of a digital signal
Data in specific format
C360S072100, C711S100000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06195217
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hard disk drive (HDD), and in particular to a HDD equipped with a FAT memory for storing FAT information.
2. Background of the Related Art
FIG. 1
shows a conventional HDD and computer peripheries, which includes at least one hard disk
11
, which includes materials for enabling data storage, having sectors SEC
0
through SEC
47
divided by a sector separation line SEC and a track TRA, a head
12
for reading data from and writing data on the hard disk
11
, a controller
13
for controlling the operation of the head
12
and the rotation of the hard disk
11
and the data input/output, and a buffer
14
for buffering the data outputted from the controller
13
and the data bus BUS.
A ROM
16
stores disk drive information provided by the manufacturer. The disk drive information, as is known to one of ordinary skill in the art, generally consist of number of cylinders, heads and sector per track of the hard disk
11
. Such information is needed since hard disk drive format varies for each manufacturer and/or HDD model. Further, the disk drive information can be stored in the Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) ROM of a computer, as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,018,095, 5,247,633 and 5,327,549 to Nissimov, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference.
As shown in
FIG. 2
, the sectors SEC
0
through SEC
47
includes a boot region BOOT for storing a bit record, a file allocation table (FAT) region FATS for storing information related to the location of files, a root director region RD for storing file size, file-made date and time, the address of a start cluster, and a data region DATA for storing contents of file.
Such HDD organization and concepts are known to one of ordinary skill in the art, and are explained in
PETER NORTON'S INSIDE THE PC,
Premier Edition, pages 166-169 and pages 203-204 and
INSIDE THE PC,
5th Edition, pages 180-207, both authored by Peter Norton. In a recent republication of
INSIDE THE PC,
7th Edition, 1997, pages 200-223 by Peter Norton, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, the HDD organization can be based on “zones” using Logical Block Addressing (LBA) for accomplishing the same number of sectors (see page 207, Technical Note). Further, U.S. Pat. No. 5,561,566 to Kigami et al., issued Oct. 1, 1996, which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses the use of the zones. Kigami et al. discloses a ROM
32
to store the zone tables. As can be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art, the zone table stored in ROM
32
can vary by each manufacturer and/or HDD model. Accordingly, the zone tables and/or number of cylinders and/or head, which comprise the disk drive information, are stored in the ROM
16
of
FIG. 1
if the HDD of
FIG. 1
utilized zones instead of sectors. In every publication by Peter Norton, the FAT region is stored in the sectors.
The operation of the conventional HDD will now be explained with reference to the accompanying drawings.
To begin with, the controller
13
controls the writing and reading operation of the HDD
11
and the movement of the head
12
, so that data stored in the hard disk
11
is read, and data is written in the hard disk
11
.
That is, the above-mentioned data input/output operation is performed in accordance with the following processes:
1) The controller
13
scans the address of the start cluster from the root directory region RD by controlling the head
12
and recognizes the location of the start cluster;
2) The controller
13
scans the address of the entire cluster by moving the head
12
to the FAT region FATS; and
3) The controller
13
reads and writes the data by moving the head
12
to the data region DATA.
Here, when a desired data is not recorded in one sector, that is, the desired data is stored in a plurality of sectors, the data is increased up to 4 times.
However, since the conventional HDD is directed to scanning the FAT information recorded on the FAT region of the HDD in every time of access of the HDD while the FAT region is located at the edge portion of the HDD, an additional access step is necessary, thus increasing the access time of the HDD.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an HDD equipped with a FAT memory, which overcome the problems encountered in a conventional HDD.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an improved HDD equipped with a FAT memory capable of storing FAT information into a FAT memory by providing a FAT memory to HDD, thus reducing the number of operation processes of the HDD, so that access time of the HDD can be advantageously improved.
To achieve the above objects, there is provided an HDD equipped with a FAT memory, which includes a head for writing data on a hard disk drive and for reading data from the hard disk drive; a nonvolatile file allocation table memory for storing a file allocation table information; and a controller for controlling the movement of the head, the rotation of the hard disk drive, and a data writing and reading operation.
Additional advantages, objects, and features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and in part will become apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned from practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and attained as particularly pointed out in the appended claims.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5018095 (1991-05-01), Nissimov
patent: 5075805 (1991-12-01), Peddle et al.
patent: 5247633 (1993-09-01), Nissimov
patent: 5327549 (1994-07-01), Nissimov
patent: 5416646 (1995-05-01), Shirai
patent: 5475668 (1995-12-01), Azumanani et al.
patent: 5493455 (1996-02-01), Miyoshi et al.
patent: 5517632 (1996-05-01), Matsomoto et al.
patent: 5559779 (1996-09-01), Iizuka
patent: 5561566 (1996-10-01), Kigami et al.
patent: 5566379 (1996-10-01), Mawatari et al.
patent: 0580434 A1 (1994-04-01), None
patent: 6-332795 (1994-12-01), None
patent: WO 89/10615 (1989-11-01), None
Norton,Peter Norton's Inside the PC, Premier Edition, pp. 166-169 and pp. 203-204.
Norton,Peter Norton's Inside the PC, 5th Edition, pp. 180-207.
Norton,Peter Norton's Inside the PC, 7th Edition pp. 200-223.
Faber Alan T.
Fleshner & Kim LLP
Hyundai Electronics Industries Co,. Ltd.
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