 Track compensation apparatus of magnetooptical disk apparatus |
| Therefore, to solve the above problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide a track ... |
|
| System for classifying input/output events for processes servicing the events |
| What is claimed is: 1. In a data processing system including an input/output (I/O) device and a ... |
|
| Videodisk player |
| Accordingly, an object of the invention is to improve the synchronization for a constant linear ... |
|
| Buffered asynchronous communications element with receive/transmit control and status reporting |
| OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT FIG. 1 shows a data communications device, Asynchronous Communications ... |
|
| Compact disk read only memory recording system with speed control |
| OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The Circuit FIG. 1 schematically shows an apparatus for producing a ... |
|
| Electronic timepiece |
| OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter is explained in detail this invention according to the ... |
|
| Microprocessor with reset execution from an arbitrary address |
| The present invention has been achieved to eliminate the problem as described above, and the ... |
|
| Device for detecting traveling speed of pickup |
| This invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of this invention is to ... |
|
|
System and method for improving the performance of high-density data storage media
| Details |
Inventors: Seamons, John K.; Grundy, Kevin P.;
Assignee: NeXT, Inc. (Redwood City, CA)
Primary Examiner: Canney; Vincent P.
Assistant Examiner:
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Rogers; Laurence S., Ingerman; Jeffrey H.
In a computer system equipped with a magneto-optical disk drive having high data density, and therefore lengthy format times, and also requiring an erase step before each write operation, a system and method for decreasing user waiting time is provided. The system and method format the disk on a continuous basis during "disk-idle" periods rather than all at once. The system and method also erase disk portions belonging to deleted data in advance during disk-idle periods, so they are ready for the next write operation. |
|
DETAILED DESCRIPTION It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a way to format high density data storage media on a time-distributed basis, rather than all at once.
It is also an object of this invention to provide a way to decrease the time needed to store data on a magneto-optical disk, by eliminating the need to erase at the time a write request is made.
In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, there is provided, in a computer system having at least one high density data storage medium (the data storage medium having a large number of data storage subdivisions, such as sectors or tracks, and requiring lengthy format times), a system and method for formatting the medium on a time-distributed basis.
The formatting system includes means for maintaining a list, table or other record of status information for each of the subdivisions.
The status information includes an indication of whether or not each subdivision has been formatted.
The system also includes means for determining when the computer system is "disk-idle", meaning that neither the system nor the user has accessed (i.
e.
, written to or read from) the disk for a period of time.
The system further includes means, responsive to such a disk-idle determination, for selecting an unformatted or virgin subdivision, and means for formatting that selected subdivision.
The formatting means also operates to format a virgin subdivision in the event that the computer system requires access to a formatted subdivision for storage of information, but the maintained status information indicates that no formatted subdivisions exist.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there are provided a system and method for maintaining a list of previously-used subdivisions to be erased and erasing them whenever the computer system is disk-idle.
|
|
File Sharing 
