Control method of control device conducting data input and output to storage devices, and control device used therefor

A control method of a disk array device which has a plurality of disk devices and is connected to an external device, comprising:

• receiving a request to conduct a format process from said external device, referring to a write history management table in which histories of conducted writing processes are recorded in block units and confirming whether or not there exists data writing process of block to be written;
• conducting said format process to said blocks to which writing processes have not been conducted without conducting said format process to said blocks to which writing processes have been conducted, and recording a history of conducting said writing process to the formatted block in said write history management table;
• and
• in a state of conducting said format process,
• receiving a request to conduct a reading process and/or writing process from said external device,
• referring to said write history management table, and
• only in a case that writing processes have been conducted to said block, conducting said reading process and/or said writing process to said block.

A control method of a control device controlling input and output of data to a plurality of storage devices, comprising:

• conducting input and output of data in block units partitioned in a storage region of a storage device;
• storing whether or not a writing of data has been conducted in the past regarding a plurality of data stripes formed by data blocks over the plurality of storage devices;
• and
• in a case that a writing has not been conducted to data stripes to which data blocks to be written belong when writing data to said storage device,
• writing said data to said data blocks to be written and initialization data to other data blocks belonging to the data stripe to which said data block belongs.

A control method of a control device controlling input and output of data to a plurality of storage devices, comprising:

• conducting data input and output to a storage device through a cache memory;
• conducting input and output of data in block units partitioned in a storage region of a storage device;
• storing whether or not writing of data has been conducted in the past to a plurality of data stripes formed by data blocks over the plurality of storage devices;
• and
• in writing data to said storage device,
• writing data to be written of all data blocks to a storage device, when in a cache memory exist data to be written to all data blocks forming a data stripe to which said data blocks to be written belong,
• alternatively, writing said data to be written to said data block to be written in and initialization data to other data blocks belonging to the data stripe to which said data block to be written in belongs, when in a cache memory does not exist data to be written to all data blocks forming a data stripe to which data blocks to be written in belong and writing of data has not been conducted in the past to a data stripe to which the data block to be written in belongs.

A control device controlling input and output of data to a plurality of storage devices, comprising:

• means inputting and outputting data in block units divided in a storage region of a storage device;
• means for storing whether or not a writing process has been conducted in the past to a plurality of data stripes which are formed of data blocks over said plurality of storage devices;
• and
• means for writing said data to a data block to be written, and writing initialization data to the other data blocks which belong to a data stripe to which said data block belongs, when a writing process has not been conducted in the past to a data stripe to which said data block to be written belongs, at a time of writing said data to said storage device.

A control device controlling input and output of data to a plurality of storage devices, comprising:

• a cache memory used for input and output of data to said storage device,
• means for inputting and outputting data in block units divided in a storage region of said storage device;
• means for storing whether or not a writing process has been conducted in the past to a plurality of data stripes formed of data blocks over said plurality of storage devices;
• and
• means for writing data to be written to all data blocks in said storage device in a case that there exists in said cache memory said data to be written to all data blocks forming a data stripe to which a data block to be written belong, in writing data to a storage, and
• means for writing said data to a data block to be written, and for writing initialization data to the other data blocks belonging to said data stripe to which said data block belongs, in a case that there does not exist writing data of all data blocks forming said data stripe to which a data block to be written belongs, and when a writing process has not conducted in the past to said data stripe to which a data block to be written belong.