Detection of overusage of spare sectors in an optical disk
US5418767A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Oct 28, 1993 |
| Grant date | May 23, 1995 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Oct 28, 2013 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG11B2220/20
- WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
An apparatus and method are provided for tracking the number of permanent and temporary errors, and spare sectors used as a result of the errors, on a per disk and per drive basis. During read/write operations, a determination is made as to whether the number of spares used to replace defective sectors on a disk, together with the number of spares used to replace defective sectors during formatting, exceeds a predetermined limit. This limit can be different depending upon the type of disk in use, rewritable or WORM. If the limit is exceeded, diagnostics are executed to ascertain the cause of the excess usage and appropriate corrective action, such as requesting that the disk and drive lens be cleaned, is initiated. Moreovers, an attempt can be made to recover used spare sectors on a rewritable disk.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.