Modular data storage directories for large-capacity data storage units

A write-once record medium including a directory storing filenames for identifying corresponding information containing files stored in said record medium and storing first address pointers respectively associated with the filenames for pointing to the storage locations of the respective files stored in the record medium as identified by the filenames, characterized in that:

• a first plurality of segment modules in the directory storing all of the filenames and associated respective address pointers of data stored in said data storage medium;
• a second plurality, less than the first plurality, of header modules in the directory, said each header module storing filenames and associated respective address pointers to a given number of said segment modules as a first set of said segment modules, said given number being less than said first plurality, each of the header modules stored address pointers pointing to respective sets of different ones of the segment modules;
• and
• a filename index in each of the header modules for identifying files identified and pointed to by a second one of said sets of said segment modules other than the segment modules identified and pointed to by the header module such that a directory scan for filenames may be limited to scanning said filename index in the header modules.

In a method of operating an optical record system wherein data is serially recorded on an optical disk-shaped record member in a plurality of addressable record tracks, each of the tracks having a plurality of addressable record sectors, each of said sectors being of equal digital signal storing capacity and capable of storing a first number of digital signals;

• the improvement, including the steps of:
• in a first portion of said optical record member, recording said digital signals in a series of circumferentially-adjacent ones of said sectors, detecting ones of those sectors incapable of recording and storing said first number of signals, skipping the incapable sectors and continuing recording in other ones of said series of circumferentially-adjacent sectors;
• and
• in a second portion of said optical record member, reserving predetermined ones of said tracks as alternate tracks for storing digital signals not storable in sectors of said second portion, recording digital signals in a series of adjacent ones of the sectors in said second portion, detecting that a one of said addressable sectors in said second portion is incapable of storing said first number of said digital signals, aborting the recording in said incapable sector and recording the signals initially destined for said incapable second portion sector in a sector of said predetermined ones of said tracks.

In a method of operating a data storage unit having a continuous address space bounded by first and second addresses and respectively representing data storage areas of said data storage unit addressably accessible by addresses in said address space;

• the steps of:
• repeatedly receiving records of diverse data for storage in the data storage unit, storing said receiving data in said data storage areas beginning at said first addressed data storage area and proceeding sequentially at successively addressed ones of said data storage areas toward said second addressed data storage area;
• each time any of said received records of data are stored in said data storage areas, creating a record directory entry having an identification of the received and just-stored records of data and an address pointer identifying the data storage area in which said received and just-stored records of data are stored;
• dividing said directory entry into header and segment portions, said header portion being an index to said segment portions, respectively, and including storing said identification and address of said segment portion, said segment portion being said identification of the said received and stored records of data and said address pointers;
• storing said created record directory entries respectively in data storage areas of said data storage unit beginning at said second address and storing successively created ones of said entries respectively at successive addressed ones of said data storage areas beginning at said second address and proceeding sequentially toward said first address;
• and
• storing said segment portion of each said directory entry in a given data storage area and storing said header portion in a data storage area having an address for a data storage area further from said second address data storage areas than said given data storage area.

In the method of operating a data processing apparatus including having a data storage unit having a plurality of addressable data storage areas;

• the steps of:
• repeatedly receiving records of diverse data for storage in the data storage unit, each of said received records of data having an identifying name therewith, a plurality of received records sharing a common identifying filename, receiving some of said records to update predetermined ones of records currently stored in the data storage unit, respectively, while others of said currently stored records are not to be updated;
• creating a record directory entry version for all of said received records having a common identifying filename and which were concurrently received, including in each said created record directory entry version said common name and the addresses of the data storage area of all records stored in said data storage unit having said common name whether or not such records are being updated by said concurrently received records and irrespective of time of receipt and storage of such included unchanged records;
• and
• storing in said created record directory entry version in a data storage area of said data storage unit and all of said previously recorded entry versions in the directory entry for said filename and assigning a version number to the created entry version and successively higher version number to entry versions identifying previously earlier stored records of said filename.

In a method of automatically indelibly recording information-bearing signals onto a recording medium, said medium being divided into a multiplicity of record tracks each track having substantially-parallel lengths, all of the record tracks being divided into equal-sized sectors for storing a first number of information-bearing signals;

• including, the automatic machine-executed steps of:
• recording records of a file of data onto the recording medium in a plurality of extents such that each extent includes a plurality of sequential ones of the records for the file which are stored in contiguous ones of the sectors in the record medium;
• during time-separated recording operations, recording successive ones of said extents, each recorded extent containing records for the file which are either new or updated and which have indeterminate logical relationships to other records recorded for the file on the record medium or to be recorded on the record medium including generating new extents whenever a number of contiguously recorded sectors change as a result of any record being recorded or updated by rerecording in an unused sector;
• and
• each time an extent of records is recorded on the record medium, recording a directory entry beginning at a given one of said sectors and recording definitions of each of the extents recorded on the record medium in a sorted order of the recorded records including a description and location of the records stored in the record medium being logically displaced from said given one sector a logical distance from the beginning of the file expressed in record numbers in a sorted sequence independent of a chronological time of recording on the record medium.

In a write-once read-many record medium directory having filenames for identifying files, each file having a plurality of addressable records and being stored in a data storage device, first address pointers in said record medium directory respectively associated with the filenames for pointing to addressable data storage locations in the data storage device in which the respective files and other records as identified by the filenames are stored;

• characterized in that:
• a first plurality of directory segment modules in the directory being for storing filenames and respective first address pointers which point to the addressable data storage locations in which the records of a filename are stored;
• and
• a second plurality of directory header modules storing filenames and second address pointers for pointing to a given number of the segment modules, each of the header modules pointing to respective sets of different ones of the segment modules and a filename index in each of the header modules for identifying files identified and pointed to by a said set of said segment modules other than the segment modules identified and pointed to by header modules and which were recorded onto said write-once read-many record medium before said each header modules, respectively.

A method of indexing a directory being indelibly recorded onto a record medium, the directory having a first plurality of directory headers and a second plurality of directory segments, said second plurality being larger than the first plurality;

• the method comprising the steps of:
• (a) electrically creating a first set of directory segments, each of the segments having a filename and address pointers to records of a file identified by the filename and stored in said record medium;
• (b) electrically creating a first directory header having filename and address pointers to the first set of directory segments stored in said record medium;
• (c) electrically creating a second set of directory segments, each of the second set segments having a filename and address pointer to records identified by such filenames stored in said record medium;
• and
• (d) electrically creating an additional directory header having filename and address pointers to said second set of directory segments and an index to filenames listed in said first directory header with an address pointer to said first directory header stored all being stored in said record medium.

The method of operating a data storage system having a data storage medium to be indelibly recorded upon, said medium having a multiplicity of addressable equal storage capacity data storage areas;

• including the steps of:
• receiving data from a data file to be recorded in said medium, the received data having record identifications indicating a predetermined relationship among records of said received data, such predetermined relationship including a relationship which is not continuous and which leaves logically vacant storage address spaces to be later filled with other data;
• allocating first ones of said data storage areas for storing said received data including allocating portions of said first ones data storage areas for said logical spaces such that the allocation logically is continuous predetermined storage space within each of said first ones of said data storage areas;
• recording the received data in a first ones of said data storage areas and leaving unrecorded portions of said data storage identified by addresses of said logical address spaces;
• creating a first directory entry for the recorded data including a listing of said first ones of said data storage areas to match identification of said recorded data including indicating which of said first one data storage areas in fact are storing data and which ones are in fact unrecorded;
• and
• recording the created directory entry in said data storage medium substantially concurrently to recording said data.

In a write-once read-many record medium, a sorted directory list for records stored on the write-once record medium which has a plurality of addressable write-once read-many data storage locations;

• the improvement comprising, in combination:
• a reference point in the directory list;
• a plurality of file version lists within said directory list, each file version list comprising a plurality of sorted record entries, each entry in each version list being sorted by record number and each entry bearing a relative number indicating a logical displacement from said reference point expresed in numbers of records, which number is representative of logical relationships of such record with respect to every other record currently in said respective version list;
• and
• said plurality of versions lists being sorted in the directory list in inverse order of recording such that the latest file version recorded on the record medium is logically closest to said reference point and such that the last-recorded version bit is scanned before other version lists.

A controller for operating with an indelible record medium, circuit means coupling the record medium to the controller for transferring data signals therebetween for recording data signals on the record medium and for receiving data signals sensed from the record medium said record medium having a plurality of substantially-concentric record tracks;

• each of the record tracks having a like number of equal-sized data storing sectors, a first radial portion of said record member being for receiving and recording digital signals in a series of adjacent ones of said sectors wherein sectors being incapable of recording and storing signals are skipped with data originally destined for the respective incapable sector being recorded in a next available sector in such series of adjacent sectors and a second radial portion of the optical record member having a plurality of alternate record tracks and a directory track for identifying which of the sectors in the second portion were incapable of storing data or identifying which of the sectors in the alternate tracks are storing data for the respective ones of said incapable sectors of said second portion;
• the improvement, including in combination:
• first means for recording and reading signals to and from said first portion including the recording of a directory using logical names to address signals stored in said series of adjacent ones of the sectors in the first portion and including readback means for reading a directory recorded in the first portion for identifying the physical location on the record member of the recorded data;
• and
• second means for addressing the sectors in the second portion and upon detecting a one of said incapable sectors of the second portion during recording the data destined for the incapable sector in a sector of said alternate tracks and recording the location of the incapable sector of the second portion in said alternate track directory track and when reading upon detecting an incapable section of the second portion scanning said alternate directory track for determining the location in the alternate data tracks of the data destined for the incapable sector of said second portion.

In a method of operating a record player having an indelibly-recorded record medium, the record medium having a plurality of concentric tracks on a disk-shaped substrate with each of the record tracks having a like plurality of equal-sized data storing sectors;

• said tracks and sectors being addressable with the addressing extending from a minimal first address from a first radial extremity to a maximal address at opposite opposing radial extremity and identified as a second address;
• all of the data to be stored on the record medium being stored beginning at one of said addresses and proceeding radially toward an opposite radial extremity and a directory for identifying the physical locations of the data on the record medium beginning at said opposite one of radial extremities and proceeding towards said first radial extremity, said directory having allocations and fixed-sized sets of tracks and the data having allocations reached upon any arbitrary number of sectors;
• the steps of:
• accessing a track assumed to be in the directory area reading the accessed track to determine whether or not it is a directory track and repeating the following steps until the radially extremity of the directory which extends toward the first radial extremity of the disk is identified;
• (a) if the track is a directory track, then move radially toward the first extremity by said number of group of tracks and reread repeating this step until a null track or a null or data track is found;
• (b) when a data track is found, accessing a track toward the radial-opposite extremity by said given number of tracks and determining whether it is a null data or directory track and repeating steps (a) or (b) for either a directory or data track;
• (c) upon detecting a null track, moving the accessing radially toward the first extremity for finding a directory track by said given number of tracks;
• (d) upon moving to a directory track from either a data track or a null track, scan the directory tracks in succession proceeding toward said first of radial extremity until a first null sector is detected and identifying the sector scanned just before the null sector as the last sector of said directory;
• and
• (e) identifying the directory extent based upon said detected null sector.

A device driver for operating a record player having an indelible record member;

• the improvement, including the combination;
• initialization means having a directory build means of building a directory structure at a radially-inwardmost portion of the indelible record member beginning with a lower logical portion of the directory structure at the radial-inwardmost portion of the record member and proceeding radially outwardly a given number of record tracks until a highest logical portion of the directory is set up on the indelible record member;
• optical disk describing means connected to the directory building means and responsive thereto record, in a radially-outwardmost track, an address pointer to the logically highest portion of said directory recorded on the indelible directory member;
• an update directory means, including means for finding a free entry in said directory means for finding a free data track beginning at the penultimate-radially-outwardmost record track and proceeding radially inwardly directory maintenance means responsive to the received data to be recorded for updating the directory in the directory structure area created by said directory creation means and recording means for recording the data onto the indelible record member including said directory and directory search means for indicating previously-recorded directory pointing to data related to the data recorded;
• search directory means for locating a directory entry associable with a given filename and space-bound means for scanning the indelible record member for indicating the bounds of the recorded data and the recorded directory on said medium.