Dynamic information storage or retrieval – Condition indicating – monitoring – or testing – Of storage or retrieval information signal
Reexamination Certificate
1999-03-12
2001-12-25
Edun, Muhammad (Department: 2651)
Dynamic information storage or retrieval
Condition indicating, monitoring, or testing
Of storage or retrieval information signal
C369S047100, C369S059100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06333904
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical-disc recording device such as a CD-RW drive or the like which records data on an optical disc such as a CD-RW or the like, which is used as a data recording medium and on which rewriting of data is possible.
2. Description of the Related Art
On each of an optical disc such as a CD-R to which only appending of data is possible and an optical disc such as a CD-RW on which rewriting of data is also possible, data is recorded in a recording area in recording units called sessions. Each session includes three areas: a lead-in area, a program area and a lead-out area.
In the program area, data is recorded in data recording units called tracks or packets. In the lead-in area, a table of contents of tracks (TOC) is recorded.
A system in which a plurality of such sessions exist in one optical disc is referred to as a multi-session recording system. In the multi-session recording system, respective sessions are given numbers in increasing order, and are referred to as a first session, a second session, . . . .
The optical-disc recording device determines whether or not an (n+1)-th session (where ‘n’ is a positive integer other than‘
0
’) exists based on information in the lead-in area of an n-th session.
For example, when data is reproduced from an optical disc on which data was recorded in the multi-session system, the lead-in area is looked at from the first session in sequence. Whether or not an (n+1)-th session exists outside of an n-th session is determined as a result of whether or not a flag indicating existence of the (n+1)-th session is recorded in the lead-in area of the n-th session.
Even if the flag indicating existence of the (n+1) session is not recorded in the lead-in area of the n-th session, it is possible that the lead-in area of the (n+1)-th session exists. However, in this case, even if the lead-in area of the (n+1)-th session exists, the existence of the (n+1)-th session is not recognized in the standards. Further, there is a possibility that data was recorded but the data should not exist in the current recording. Therefore, data which should not exist exists. (For example, see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 6-349068.)
Specifically, when the flag indicating existence of a subsequent session is recorded in the lead-in area of the n-th session on the optical disc, the optical-disc recording device determines that the subsequent (n+1)-th session exists, and can perform recording data on and reproducing data from the (n+1)-th session.
When the above-mentioned flag is not recorded in the lead-in area of the n-th session, or a flag indicating absence of a subsequent session is recorded there, the optical-disc recording device determines that the (n+1)-th session does not exist, and, therefore, cannot perform recording data on and reproducing data from the (n+1)-th session.
Therefore, either as a result of not recording the flag indicating existence of a subsequent session or as a result of recording the flag indicating absence of a subsequent session on a session of an optical disc, it is possible to disable data from being appended to the optical disc.
For example, writing is possible once on an optical disc such as a CD-R to which appending of data is possible. Therefore, once data is recorded in the lead-in area, after that, re-recording (rewriting) cannot be performed. Accordingly, either as a result of not recording the flag indicating existence of a subsequent session or as a result of recording the flag indicating absence of a subsequent session at the time of recording the lead-in area, after that, appending of data to the optical disc cannot be performed.
Further, rewriting of data is possible on an optical disc such as a CD-RW on which re-recording of data is possible. However, in the optical-disc recording device in the related art, once appending of data to the optical disc is made impossible either as a result of not recording the flag indicating existence of a subsequent session or as a result of recording the flag indicating absence of a subsequent session at the time of recording the lead-in area, after that, appending of data to the optical disc cannot be performed again.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is directed to eliminating the above-mentioned problem. An object of the present invention is to enable appending of data to an optical disc again, on which optical disc rewriting of data is possible, and to which optical disc appending of data was made impossible.
An optical-disc recording device, according to the present invention, comprises:
means for recording data on and reproducing data from an optical disc in a multi-session recording system, on which optical disc re-recording of data is possible; and
last-session rewriting means for rewriting contents of a last session of the optical disc from contents indicating that a subsequent session does not exist to contents indicating that a subsequent session exists.
In this arrangement, data is recorded on and data is reproduced from an optical disc in a multi-session recording system, on which optical disc re-recording of data is possible. Further, contents of a last session of the optical disc are rewritten from contents indicating that a subsequent session does not exist to contents indicating that a subsequent session exists.
Specifically, when a flag indicating absence of a subsequent session is recorded in the last session, rewriting of contents of the last session is performed so that a flag indicating existence of a subsequent session is recorded in the last session. When no flag indicating existence of a subsequent session is recorded in the last session, rewriting of contents of the last session is performed so that the flag indicating existence of a subsequent session is recorded in the last session. Thereby, the state of the optical disc on which re-recording of data is possible can be changed from the state in which appending of data to the optical disc is not possible to the state in which appending of data to the disc is possible again.
It is preferable to further provide means for rewriting contents of the last session of the optical disc from contents indicating that a subsequent session exists to contents indicating that a subsequent session does not exist.
In this arrangement, contents of the last session of the optical disc are rewritten from contents indicating that a subsequent session exists to contents indicating that a subsequent session does not exist.
Specifically, when the flag indicating existence of a subsequent session is recorded in the last session, rewriting of contents of the last session is performed so that either the flag indicating absence of a subsequent session is recorded or no flag indicating existence of a subsequent session is recorded in the last session. Thereby, the state of the optical disc on which re-recording of data is possible can be changed from the state in which appending of data to the optical disc is possible to the state in which appending of data to the disc is not possible.
In addition, it is preferable to further provide means for preventing the last-session rewriting means from rewriting the contents of the last session when the remaining capacity of the recording area of the optical disc is so small that one session cannot be formed by using the remaining capacity.
In this arrangement, rewriting of the contents of the last session is prevented when the remaining capacity of the recording area of the optical disc is so small that one session cannot be formed by using the remaining capacity. Therefore, when there is no space for forming one session (at least, a space of one track for forming the lead-in area, lead-out area, and program area) in the optical disc, it is possible to prevent uselessly rewriting of the contents of the last session so as to prevent appending of data to the optical disc from being enabled.
Other objects and further features of the present
Dickstein , Shapiro, Morin & Oshinsky, LLP
Edun Muhammad
Ricoh & Company, Ltd.
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