Electrical computers and digital processing systems: support – Digital data processing system initialization or configuration – Loading initialization program
Reexamination Certificate
1998-08-25
2001-06-19
Heckler, Thomas M. (Department: 2182)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: support
Digital data processing system initialization or configuration
Loading initialization program
Reexamination Certificate
active
06249864
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to removable medium processing apparatus and recording and reproducing apparatus which are used to activate a medium accessing function of an upper apparatus when a power source of the recording and reproducing apparatus using a removable medium such as optical disk, magnetic disk, floppy disk, or the like is turned on or the medium is inserted into the apparatus. More particularly, the invention relates to processing apparatus and recording and reproducing apparatus for a removable medium, in which firmware of the recording and reproducing apparatus reads out and analyzes medium information which is necessary to start access of the removable medium and responds to a command from the upper apparatus.
In recent years, various kinds of removable apparatuses such as magnetic tape apparatus, CD drive, DVD drive, MO drive, floppy disk apparatus, large capacity floppy apparatus, and the like which can be used for various kinds of computer apparatuses, a television, a video deck, and the like have appeared. It is also necessary to cope with various kinds of logic formats by one drive in correspondence to various interfaces such as IDE, SCSI, UBS, IEEE1394, and the like. However, in the present situation, it is impossible to easily interchange a control of the logic format by the OS of an upper apparatus with respect to various logic formats which media inserted to the removable apparatus have.
Hitherto, as for a basic input output system BIOS known as a basic input output system provided for the upper apparatus, any basic input output system BIOS recognizes a partition table of the medium, executes a bootup process, and transfers a control to a system program, thereby allowing a boot process to be executed. That is, the basic input output system BIOS fixedly sets medium information necessary for the bootup of the logic format or the like of the medium by its own set-up menu. Therefore, when a power source of the upper apparatus is turned on in a state in which the medium has been inserted in the removable apparatus, the basic input output system BIOS installed in a mother board of the upper apparatus executes the bootup process on the basis of the medium information set by the set-up menu, loads a boot program from the medium into a main storage of the upper apparatus, executes the boot process by the OS, and establishes an enable state of the input/output access to/from the removable apparatus. The reason why the basic input output system BIOS executes the bootup process serving as a head portion of the boot process without executing the boot process itself is because a memory capacity (capacity of an ROM) on the mother board in which the basic input output system BIOS has been installed is small.
In recent years, however, one removable apparatus has supported a plurality of kinds of logic formats held by a plurality of operating systems OS which operate in the upper apparatus. It is a situation in which the bootup by the conventional basic input output system BIOS in which the medium information has fixedly been set by the set-up menu cannot easily cope with a variety of many logic formats. That is, the logic formats of the media are fixedly set by the set-up menu of the basic input output system BIOS. Therefore, when the medium format is different, even if the basic input output system BIOS executes the bootup process, an error occurs in a menu display of a program list when the boot program is loaded from the medium, so that the booting process cannot be executed. In case of inserting the removable apparatus into a computer apparatus (plug-in manner) and using, when a power source of the plug-in removable apparatus is turned on and the medium is inserted, the operating system OS recognizes that the inserted medium is a medium having the logic format established by the bootup process by the basic input output system BIOS at the time of turn-on of the power source and the boot process by the execution of the boot program of a hard disk drive HDD. Consequently, when the logic format of the inserted medium is different, the access to the removable apparatus by the operating system OS causes an error and cannot be supported.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to the invention, there are provided a removable medium processing apparatus and a recording and reproducing apparatus, in which an upper apparatus can easily cope with various kinds of logic formats which removable media have.
A removable medium processing apparatus of the invention comprises a recording and reproducing apparatus and an upper apparatus. The recording and reproducing apparatus (also referred to as a memory apparatus) is mounted on the apparatus main body. When a power source of the apparatus is turned on in a state where a removable medium has been inserted, the recording and reproducing apparatus reads out and analyzes system information recorded on the medium, forms medium information, and transfers the medium information in response to a request command from the upper apparatus. When the power source of the apparatus is turned on, the upper apparatus supplies a command to the recording and reproducing apparatus, obtains the medium information, executes a boot process on the basis of the obtained medium information, and establishes an accessible state of the recording and reproducing apparatus. According to the removable medium processing apparatus of the invention, when the power source of the apparatus is turned on, the medium information including at least a format kind is formed on the recording and reproducing apparatus side, the formed medium information is transferred in response to the command from the upper apparatus before the bootup process is executed, the medium information can be obtained in the upper apparatus without executing any special operation such as reading, analysis, or the like of the medium, and the upper apparatus can easily cope with various kinds of formats of the medium side.
The recording and reproducing apparatus comprises: a system information reading unit for reading out system information which has previously been recorded from a predetermined area of the medium when the power source of the apparatus is turned on; a medium information forming unit for analyzing the system information and forming medium information necessary for the bootup process of the upper apparatus; and a command processing unit for transferring the medium information in response to a medium information request command received from the upper apparatus when the power source of the apparatus is turned on. The system information reading unit reads out a head logic block address LBA0 of the medium and caches it into a buffer. The medium information forming unit analyzes a logic block address LBA of the medium cached in the buffer and forms the medium information. In this instance, the medium information forming unit forms the medium information so as to be divided into one or a plurality of partitions. The partition defines a logical virtual medium by dividing a medium area into one or a plurality of areas. When the power source of the apparatus is turned on, the medium information forming unit forms, for example, partition information indicative of a partition area, format information indicative of a format kind of the partition, and boot information indicative of whether a boot program which is loaded to the upper apparatus and is executed has been stored or not. In this instance, the removable medium has, for example, a PC/AT corresponding medium format. When the power source of the apparatus is turned on, the medium information forming unit forms partition information by analyzing a partition start address, a partition end address, a partition head physical sector, and the total number of partition allocation sectors of the head logic block address of the removable medium, forms format information by analyzing a system indicator of the logic block address, and further forms boot information by analyzing a boot indicator of the logic block address.
Fujitsu Limited
Greer Burns & Crain Ltd.
Heckler Thomas M.
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