Recording error history embedded rewriteable media
AssigneeStorage Technology Corporation
InventorsRichard A. Gill, Benjamin J. Baron
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system for recording the history associated with writing data onto rewriteable media includes an access head for writing data onto the media and reading data from the media. A drive motor moves the media past the access head. A write formatter formats data into a device block to be written onto the media. A read formatter detects errors in data read from the media. A control unit determines an error recovery procedure based on an error detected in reading the media and enables the write formatter to insert an indication of the error recovery procedure into the device block. The error recovery procedure is then attempted. The process is repeated until either a successful write occurs or the media is determined to be bad.
Claims20
A system for recording the history associated with writing data onto rewriteable media comprising:
- an access head operative to write data onto rewriteable media and to read data from rewriteable media;
- a drive for moving the rewriteable media past the access head;
- a write formatter in communication with the access head, the write formatter operative to format data into a device block to be written onto the rewriteable media;
- a read formatter in communication with the access head, the read formatter operative to detect errors in data read from the rewriteable media;
- and
- a control unit in communication with the drive, the write formatter, and the read formatter, the control unit operative to
- (a) enable the write formatter to form a device block comprising the data,
- (b) enable the write formatter to write at least a portion of the device block onto the rewriteable media,
- (c) enable the read formatter to detect an error in the written portion of the device block,
- (d) determine an error recovery procedure based on the detected error,
- (e) enable the drive to position the rewriteable media relative to the access head based on the determined error recovery procedure,
- (f) enable the write formatter to insert an indication of the determined error recovery procedure into the device block, and
- (g) repeat (a) through (f).
A method of recording the history associated with writing data onto rewriteable media comprising:
- forming a device block comprising the data;
- writing at least a portion of the device block onto the rewriteable media;
- reading the written portion of the device block from the rewriteable media;
- detecting if an error occurred in writing the written portion of the device block and, if no error occurred, terminating the method;
- determining an error recovery procedure if an error is detected;
- inserting an indication of the determined error recovery procedure into the device block;
- and
- repeating writing, reading, detecting, determining, and inserting, wherein writing implements the determined error recovery procedure.
Rewriteable media comprising at least one data track, each data track comprising a plurality of device blocks, each device block comprising an indication of the number of attempts required to write the device block.
A method of determining the history associated with rewriteable media write errors comprising:
- forming each of a plurality of device blocks;
- writing at least a portion of each device block onto the rewriteable media;
- reading at least a portion of each device block from the rewriteable media;
- detecting if an error occurred in writing the portion of each device block;
- for each device block, determining an error recovery procedure if a write error is detected;
- inserting an indication of the determined error recovery procedure into each device block;
- and
- reading each device block to extract the inserted error recovery procedure indication.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.