JPH07235139A - Optical disk device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Purpose] Even when the number of defective sectors is larger than the number of replacement sectors prepared in advance, an optical disc can be used without being considered as an unusable disc. [Structure] When the number of initial defect sectors is detected when the number of initial defect sectors is detected by performing a disc certify operation on the optical disc 1, the detected number of initial defect sectors is larger than the memory capacity of the basic replacement area AEA secured in advance. In addition, the memory capacity of the user area UE is reduced by the block user area B, and the replacement area AE is reduced accordingly.
I try to increase the memory capacity of. In this way, the optical disc treated as a defective optical disc by the conventional technique can be used as a non-defective disc.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention, when there is a defect sector (defective sector) that cannot be used due to a defect on the recording surface of an optical disk, writes it when a write command is issued to the defect sector. The present invention relates to an optical disk device suitable for application to an optical disk drive in which a replacement process is performed so that the contents are written in another sector (replacement sector).

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A rewritable type M as a recordable optical disk
O (magneto-optical) discs and write-once WORM (write once read multiple) discs are known. When using these MO discs or WORM discs (also simply referred to as WO discs), so-called raw discs (discs in which only track addresses and the like are formed by prepits) are subjected to disc formatting.

First, in the disk format for an MO disk, a defective sector (also referred to as a defective sector / a defective sector / error sector) existing on the disk is apparently excluded so that the user can handle it as a disk having no defective sector at all. This is a processing operation for performing.

When the MO disk drive receives a disk format command from the host computer,
The MO disk drive is the M installed in itself
Read and write to find the defective sector of the O disk. This operation is called disk certification.

When the defective sector can be identified by this disc certify, the information is written in an area called a disc definition structure (DDS) sector, and the data to be recorded in this defective sector is stored in the sector of the next sector number. Record (also referred to as writing or writing).

As a result, when the optical disk drive is turned on, the CPU (also called a system controller) in the optical disk drive first reads the contents of the DDS sector, and then the host computer. Access from (lead and / or)
Write) If the target sector is a defective sector,
By accessing the sector of the next sector number, it is possible to avoid the defective sector and read / write only the correct sector. As described above, the processing algorithm of the defective sector in which the physical sector next to the defective sector is treated as a replacement sector to support high-speed access by the optical pickup is a sector slipping algorithm (SSA: sector s).
Lipping algorithm).

However, after that, there is no guarantee that a defect sector will not be newly generated in the MO disk forever, and only the disk certification process at the time of initialization covers the processing of such a newly generated defect sector. You cannot do it.

Therefore, if a new defective sector is detected at the time of writing a data block, the data is written to a sector (physical sector) at a position physically different from the position of the defective sector. writing,
This is supported by using this as a replacement sector.
The process for this defect sector is performed by a linear replacement algorithm (LRA: linear repl).
Acement algorithm).

Next, the disk format for the WORM disk is also a processing operation for apparently excluding the defective sectors existing on the disk so that the user can handle the disk as a disk having no defective sectors at all. Is the same as the disk format for.

When the WORM disk drive receives a disk format command from the host computer, the WORM disk drive is of the write-once type in order to find the defective sector of the WORM disk mounted in itself, and therefore the data is not written. Is read (also referred to as read), the reflectance (address, track address, sector address, etc.) in the pre-pit and the reflectance of the data area are detected, and the reflectance is in a range exceeding the reflectance in the predetermined range. In this case, a disk certify process is performed to identify it as a defective sector.

When the defect sector can be identified by this disc certifying process, the information is written in an area called a DDS sector. As a result, thereafter, when the sector to be accessed from the host computer is a defective sector, the defective sector replacement process by the LRA process is performed. In general, the WORM drive does not perform the defect sector replacement process by the SSA process. This is because if this SSA processing is adopted, the physical sector and the logical sector do not match at all, and the system control becomes considerably complicated.

[0012]

Generally, in an optical disc, a spare area for performing the above LRA processing is secured. Since the optical disc has a higher error rate than the hard disc, the memory capacity of the replacement area is large. For example, in an ISO-compliant disk drive that handles an optical disk having a memory capacity of 128 MB, the number of sectors in the spare area is 1000. If one sector is 2048B (bytes),
It is necessary to reserve about 2 MB of memory capacity in the replacement area.

The present applicant is currently aware that the memory capacity is 650 MB.
(2048B / sector) optical disc is under development,
According to the above ISO, 1000 x 2048 x (65
It is necessary to secure a memory capacity of 0/128) B, that is, a memory capacity of about 10 MB as an alternate area. In the future, with the ever-increasing memory capacity, for example, it may be extremely useless to reserve the memory capacity as a replacement area of about 1.5%. It is believed that there is.

In other words, in reality, not all the replacement areas are used, but there are slight differences in the manufacturing process (for example, exposure time and etching time during master making, resin temperature during injection molding, etc.). Also, the usage rate is determined according to what is called the disc characteristics, such as the allowable range of the specifications of the optical disc drive (laser power, distance between the optical pickup and the optical disc, etc.). About 10 MB of area memory capacity
Is a value close to the worst value of those conditions, and as a result, when the user area is used up,
It is estimated that there are many cases in which the memory capacity of the replacement area remains considerably.

The present invention has been made in consideration of the above problems, and an object thereof is to provide an optical disk device capable of efficiently securing a spare area.

It is another object of the present invention to provide an optical disc device which enables efficient use of the user area and the spare area.

[0017]

According to the present invention, the number of initial defect sectors is detected by performing a disk certify operation on an optical disk having a user area in which a user can record, and detecting the number of initial defect sectors according to the number of detected initial defect sectors. The memory capacity of the spare area in the optical disc is variable.

Further, according to the present invention, when the number of the detected initial defect sectors exceeds the memory capacity of the spare area secured in advance, the memory capacity of the user area is reduced and the spare area of the spare area is reduced. The memory capacity is increased.

Furthermore, according to the present invention, when one of the use order of the user area and the use order of the alternation area is sequentially used from the inner track, the other is sequentially used from the outer track. It was done so.

Further, according to the present invention, the time when the memory capacity of the spare area is changed is the time when a command for confirming the memory capacity of the remaining user area is received from the host.

Still further, according to the present invention, the memory capacity of the spare area is varied at the time of power-on or reset.

[0022]

According to the present invention, when the disc certify operation is performed on the optical disc and the number of initial defect sectors is detected, the memory capacity of the spare area in the optical disc is changed according to the number. Therefore, it is possible to determine the memory capacity of the spare area that matches the characteristics of the optical disc.

Further, according to the present invention, when the number of the detected initial defect sectors exceeds the memory capacity of the spare area secured in advance, the memory capacity of the user area is reduced and the spare area is replaced. The memory capacity of the area is increased. In this case, the optical disc which is treated as a defective optical disc in the conventional technique can be used as a non-defective disc.

Further, according to the present invention, when one of the use order of the user area and the use order of the spare area is sequentially used from the inner track,
The other is used sequentially from the track on the outer peripheral side. Therefore, as the memory area is used, the boundary of the used user area and the boundary of the used replacement area are controlled to gradually approach each other from a distant position.
The optical disc can be used efficiently.

Further, according to the present invention, the time when the memory capacity of the spare area is changed is the time when a command for confirming the memory capacity of the remaining user area is received from the host. Therefore, the host can accurately grasp the memory capacity of the remaining user area at that time.

Further, according to the present invention, the memory capacity of the spare area is changed at the time of power-on or reset. Therefore, the host
When the power is turned on or the power is reset, the memory capacity of the remaining user area can be accurately grasped automatically.

[0027]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows the configuration of an optical disc drive 11 to which this embodiment is applied.

The optical disk drive 11 has a CPU (central processing unit) 21 which is a system controller. A ROM (read-only memory) 23 records and holds the software program for system control. RAM (random access memory)
22 is a work RAM of the CPU 21.

The disk format command issued from the host computer 10 is sent to the CPU 21 through the host interface 20, the buffer controller 24 and the CPU bus 18.

The CPU 21 is, for example, an optical disk 1 which is an MO disk having a data area memory capacity of 650 MB.
R for the data for performing the disk certification process of
The data is read from the OM 23 and written in the data buffer 25 through the buffer controller 24.

FIG. 2 shows the disc format of the optical disc 1. There are 10,000 tracks with track numbers (track addresses) "0" to "9999" from the outer side (outermost side) in the radial direction to the inner side (innermost side) (actually, the number of tracks is There are about 13,000, but it is 10,000 tracks for simplicity). In the following explanation, track number "○"
This track is called track “○”.

Tracks 0-2 and tracks 9948-9
A track 999 is managed only by the CPU 21 of the optical disk drive 11. Among them, track 9
Reference numerals 948 to 9996 are basic replacement areas AEA for LRA processing as described later. The remaining tracks 3 ~
Track 9947 is a user area UE. The basic replacement area AEA has a memory capacity secured in advance in the optical disc 1, and is 4 in the optical disc 1 of this embodiment.
It is for 9 tracks.

Further, each track has sectors having physical sector numbers “0” to “24” (physical sector 0 if necessary).
-24 or simply referred to as sectors 0-24 when the meaning is clear from the front and rear relationships. )have. The memory capacity of one sector is 2048 B (bytes). 1
The memory capacity of one sector may be determined as 512B or 1024B.

Physical sector 0 of track 0, physical sector 12 of track 1, physical sector 0 of track 9997 and physical sector 12 of track 9998 are DDS (disk definition structure) sectors # 0 to # 3.
Is. Physical sector 1 of track 0, physical sector 13 of track 1, physical sector 1 of track 9997 and physical sector 13 of track 9998 are PDL (Primary Defect List) sectors # 0 to # 3. Physical sector 2 of track 0, physical sector 14 of track 1, physical sector 2 of track 9997, and physical sector 14 of track 9998 are SDL (Secondary Defect List) sectors # 0 to # 3.

Therefore, the CPU 21, which has received the disk format command, instructs the servo controller 27 to write from the physical sector 0 of the track 3 of the user area UE to a certain sector, and at the same time performs the disk certify. Data is transferred from the data buffer 25 to the buffer controller 24 and the data bus 19
Through the drive interface 26. At the same time, the drive interface 26 is also instructed to write on the optical disc 1 through the optical pickup 29.

Then, the optical pickup 29 and a magnetic head (not shown) are moved through the linear motor 17 to the target track (a certain sector from the physical sector 0 of the track 3) of the optical disk 1 rotated by a spindle motor (not shown). , The writing to the certain sector is completed by the interaction between the laser beam L and the magnetic field from the magnetic head (known technique).

When the writing is completed, the CPU 2
1 is the reverse direction of the data flow (optical disc 1
From the physical sector 0 of the track 3 to the fixed sector, the buffer controller 24, the drive interface 26 and the servo controller 27 are instructed to issue a read command.

As a result of reading based on this read command, if all of these fixed sectors are normal sectors,
From the next physical sector for the certain sector, writing and reading for the certain sector are performed again. In this way, writing and reading are repeated, and the last sector (basic replacement area AEA
Track 9996 to sector 24). If a read error is found in the middle of writing / reading, the SSA process for designating the replacement sector to the sector next to the error sector is performed on the error sector, and the information is written to the PDL sector #. Write to 1 and register.

When the CPU 21 checks all the sectors in the user area UE and the basic replacement area AEA of the optical disk 1, as shown in FIG. 2, the outermost tracks 0 and 1 and the innermost track 9997 are located. , 9998 D
DS sectors # 0 to # 3, PDL sectors # 0 to # 3 and S
The same information is written in each of the DL sectors # 0 to # 3 (the contents of the DDS sectors # 0 to # 3 are the same, the contents of the PDL sectors # 0 to # 3 are the same, and the contents of the SDL sectors # 0 to # 3 are the same. Meaning). At this point, that is, in the disk certify process, the information of the defective sector is not written in the SDL sectors # 0 to # 3.

As described above, the same data is written at four locations because of the DDS sectors # 0 to #.
3, PDL sectors # 0 to # 3 and SDL sectors # 0 to #
For backup of data recorded in 3 (backup copy: copy the same data to a non-volatile memory (in this case, the optical disk 1 which is an MO disk) so that the data is not accidentally lost) Is.

With the above, the disk certify operation is completed.

FIG. 3 shows the allocation within the DDS sector. The contents of the first 2 bytes are the ID of the DDS sector
It represents the (identification part), and the two bytes are "0.
"A: Hexadecimal representation of BCD" is recorded. Byte number 2 is reserved and "00" is recorded. In the byte number 3, whether or not the disk certify is performed is recorded. If it has already been completed, "01" is recorded, and if it has not been performed yet, "02" is recorded. Therefore, at the end of the disk certify operation, the byte number 3 of the DDS sector is from "02" to "0".
It will be rewritten to "1".

In the byte number 2047, as will be described in detail later, the current situation related to the change of the spare area is the user access mark UAM, which is 1-byte 8-bit data "○○ h (h represents hexadecimal). Is recorded.

Here, it should be noted that the CPU 21 can grasp the number of detected defective sectors at the time when the disk certify processing is completed. Therefore, the CPU 21 can roughly determine the identity of the optical disc 1, in other words, whether it is good or bad, by the number of defect sectors. Based on this idea, the memory capacity of the spare area for LRA processing can be determined according to the number of defective sectors at the end of the disk certify processing. When the optical disc is a poor disc with a large number of defect sectors, it is about 10 MB as described in the conventional technique, that is, 203 (10 MB / 24 sectors / 2048 B).
Reserve for trucks. However, if the optical disk has a normal number of defect sectors, the memory capacity of the spare area can be made smaller. By controlling in this way, the memory capacity of the user area UE that can be used by the host computer 10 can be increased.

Based on such a concept of control, matters relating to the main part of the present invention will be described below. FIG. 4 shows the state of all the memory areas of the optical disc 1 immediately after the disc certifying process.

In the example of FIG. 4, a track 9948 is used.
49 tracks up to 9996 for basic replacement area AE
Secured as A. In addition, the number of defective sectors is 12 in tracks 9948 to 9959 as a result of the disk certify process, as indicated by hatching in the figure.
It is assumed that tracks are registered in PDL sectors # 1 to # 3. Actually, since the SSA process is performed during the disc certify process, the track 994 is
12 tracks from 8 to 9959 are basic replacement sectors A
It is the number of all defect sectors generated by the SSA process in the EA, and normally, it is randomly generated, but for convenience, tracks 9948 to 9959 are tracks related to the number of defect sectors. Note that normally,
Of the 49 tracks, the number of defective sectors does not occur as much as 12 tracks, and is increased to make the drawing easier to see. .

In the example of FIG. 4, assuming that the number of defective sectors is 12 tracks due to the disk certify processing, and the track 9959 is eroded (used), the data read after the disk certify processing is completed. / P generated for write operation
The memory capacity of the replacement sectors registered in the DL sectors # 0 to # 3 as replacement sector addresses for LRA processing is 9997.
-9960 = 37 tracks are prepared.

If the number of defective sectors is 49 tracks due to the disk certify process, the tracks 9948 to 99 of the basic replacement area AEA will be described.
96 is not enough. In this case, the user area UE on the inner circumference side of the basic replacement area AEA is set to block user areas B6 to B0 for every 64 tracks, for example, as shown in FIG.
The block user area B6 is also treated as a replacement area.

That is, in the above embodiment, the optical disc 1
When the number of initial defect sectors is detected by performing the disc certifying operation on the disc, the memory capacity of the spare area in the optical disc 1 is changed according to the number. Therefore, it is possible to determine the memory capacity of the spare area that matches the features of the optical disc 1. In this way, the optical disk 1 can be used only by reducing the memory capacity of the user area UE that can be used by the host computer 10.

That is, in the prior art, when the number of defect sectors exceeding the memory capacity of the spare area secured in advance is detected during the disc certifying process, the disc treated as a defective optical disc is treated as a non-defective optical disc. Can be used as

Next, the processing when the memory capacity (track) of the spare area prepared for the LRA processing in the normal read / write processing after the disk certifying processing is insufficient will be described.

Normally, the write access from the host computer 10 to the optical disk 11 is sequentially performed from the lower track address (younger number) to the higher track address. That is, the user area UE is sequentially used from the lowest track address (track 3 in the fourth example) to the highest track address. On the other hand, the replacement area AE is also used sequentially from the lowest track address (track 9960 in the example of FIG. 4) to the highest track address. When used in this way, the memory capacity of the user area UE can be kept constant, but even when the replacement area AE is completely used (in the example of FIG. 4, the track 9996 is used), Even if there are enough user areas UE left, this optical disc 1 cannot be used.

Therefore, paying attention to these points, the user area UE is currently used, but when the number of defect sectors (defect tracks) exceeds a predetermined number, it can also be used as a replacement area. It is possible to do so.

Therefore, in this embodiment, the defect information is sent to the DDS sector and PD after the disk certify processing.
When writing to the L sector, D
In the DS sector, the user access mark UAM indicating the used state of the user area UE is recorded at the byte number 2047 shown in FIG.

FIG. 5 shows an example of the structure of the user access mark UAM. The user access mark UAM is 1-byte 8-bit data, and has LSB bits “b0” to M.
It has an SB bit “b7” structure. Each bit b7
As shown in the following correspondence, the block user areas B0 to B6 and the basic replacement area AEA are represented by "1" and "0" indicating the unused state, respectively. ing.

B0: Usage state of block user area B0 (tracks 9500 to 9563) b1: Block user area B1 (tracks 9564 to 9564)
9627) usage state b2: block user area B2 (track 9628-
9391) usage state b3: block user area B3 (track 9692-
9755) usage state b4: block user area B4 (track 9756-)
9819) usage state b5: Block user area B5 (track 9820-
983) usage state b6: block user area B6 (track 9884 to
9947) usage status b7: Basic replacement area AEA (tracks 9948 to 99)
96) State of use

Therefore, in the state of the example of FIG. 4 after the end of the disk certification, the user access mark U
As the content (recorded data) of AM, "10000000 =
80h ”is recorded.

By thus assigning a specific track address range on the optical disk 1 in advance and pre-determining eight places, a write command is issued from the host computer 10 to a sector within the track address range. In that case, "1" is written in the bit of the user access mark UAM corresponding thereto. For example, when the host computer 10 issues a write command in the range of tracks 9500-9563, directly speaking, the host computer 10 writes the track 9500.
To 9563, write "1" to bit b0, and then write to tracks 9564 to 96.
When the host computer 10 writes in the range of 27, "1" is written in bit b1 and similarly, this operation is repeated until bit b6.

On the other hand, in the example of FIG. 4 after the disk certify processing, the track 99 is set as an unused replacement area AE.
37 tracks of 60 to 9996 are prepared. This is the write & after the disk certify process
When there is not enough due to (and) verify processing or the like, the CPU 21 determines whether the host computer 10 has written to the block user area B6 of the tracks 9884 to 9948 based on the content of the recorded data of the user success mark UAM. If it is determined that it is still unused, the entire block user area B6 is changed from the user area UE to the replacement area AE.
In this way, by constantly monitoring the write access from the host computer 10 to the user area UE by the user access mark UAM, the replacement area A
E can be increased depending on the usage of the replacement area AE. This process is called a process of changing the boundary between the user area UE and the replacement area AE.

The user area UE is replaced by the replacement area AE.
The time may be changed to, for example, when the optical disk drive 11 (CPU 21) returns the disk capacity (memory capacity) of the remaining user area UE to the host computer 10. The optical disk drive 11 is an SC for the host computer 10.
When the SI (Scazy) interface is used as an interface, a read capacity (READ CAPACITY) command is issued from the host computer 10, and when the command is accepted, the remaining unused memory capacity of the replacement area AE If the unused memory capacity is less than a certain memory capacity, the user area UE and the replacement area A are
The process of changing the boundary of E may be performed.

FIG. 6 shows a flow chart of an example of a software program stored in advance in the ROM 23 for the processing relating to the user access mark UAM described above. Hereinafter, the above-mentioned operation will be briefly described again with reference to this flowchart.

First, it is confirmed whether the power is turned on or the reset button is pushed (step S).
1).

Next, the DDS sector, PDL sector and S
The contents of the DL sector are read (step S2).

In this case, byte number 3 in the DDS sector
It is confirmed from the recorded data (see FIG. 3) that the disc certifying process has been completed (step S).
3).

If the disk certify processing has not been completed, the host computer 10 waits for the disk format command to be issued, and the disk certify processing is performed (step S4).

After the disk certify process, the number NDS of defective sectors is detected (step S5).

The number of sectors, which is the number of defect sectors NDS plus the spare sector margin α, is the basic replacement area AE.
It is confirmed whether the number is smaller than the number of sectors of A (step S6).

If the number is small, the bit b7 in the recorded data of the user access mark UAM of the byte number 2047 of the DDS sector is set to "1" (step S7),
A normal command waiting state is entered (step S8).

If the number is large, the user address mark UAM is written (step S9) in order to increase the capacity of the replacement area according to the number NDS of the defect sectors, and the normal command waiting is performed. Is entered (step S8).

When any command is sent from the host computer 10 in the normal command waiting state, the process according to the command is performed (step S1).
0). If the write command is included in this command (step S11), if the address in the block user area B is included in the addresses at which the write command is executed, the user address mark is displayed. The UAM recording data is updated as described above (step S13).

If the command sent is a read capacity command (step S21),
If the remaining capacity of the replacement area AE is less than the predetermined margin α, as described above, the user address mark U
The host computer 10 is informed of the memory capacity of the free area of the user area UE after updating the recorded data of AM and increasing the replacement area AE (step S24).

As described above, according to the above-described embodiment, when the disc certify operation is performed on the optical disc 1 to detect the number NDS of initial defect sectors, the memory capacity of the replacement area AE in the optical disc 1 is determined according to the number. I am trying to change it. Therefore, the optical disc 1
In other words, it is possible to determine the memory capacity of the replacement area AE corresponding to the initial defect sector detection rate (the ratio of the number of defective sectors to the total number of the certified sectors).

Further, according to this embodiment, when the number NDS of the detected initial defect sectors exceeds the memory capacity of the replacement area AEA which is secured in advance, the memory capacity of the user area UE is increased. The memory capacity of the replacement area AE is increased by decreasing the size by the block user area B. In this way, the optical disc treated as a defective optical disc by the conventional technique can be used as a non-defective disc.

Further, according to this embodiment, the usage direction of the user area UE is sequentially used from the inner track 3 toward the outer track, while the replacement area AE is used in the outer direction. The tracks are sequentially used from the track 9996 toward the inner track.
Therefore, as the user area UE and the replacement area AE are used, the boundary between the used user area UE and the used replacement area AE is controlled so as to gradually approach each other from a distant position. Can be used efficiently.

It should be noted that the use direction of the user area UE is started from the outer peripheral side track 9996 toward the inner peripheral side track, while the use direction of the replacement area AE is changed from the inner peripheral side track 3 to the outer peripheral side track. Needless to say, it may be possible to start using toward.

However, in the example of FIG. 4, the host computer 10 is the block user area B6 (track 9884) as the user area UE for setting the replacement area AE.
Up to 9947) user data has already been written, but a block user area B having a lower track address number, for example, block user area B
If 5 (tracks 9820 to 9883) is vacant, the area can be set as the replacement area AE.

Further, according to this embodiment, when the boundary between the replacement area AE and the user area UE is changed, in other words, when the memory capacity of the replacement area AE is changed, the memory capacity of the remaining user areas UE is changed. The confirmation command (read capacity command) is issued when the CPU 21 receives it from the host computer 10. Therefore, the host computer 10 can always accurately grasp the memory capacity of the remaining user area UE.

The memory capacity of the replacement area AE may be changed at the time of power-on or reset. In this way, the host computer 10
Can automatically grasp the memory capacity of the remaining user area UE automatically at the time of power-on or reset.

Further, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and it goes without saying that various configurations can be adopted without departing from the gist of the present invention.

[0080]

As described above, according to the present invention, when the number of initial defect sectors is detected by performing the disc certify operation on the optical disc, the memory capacity of the replacement area in the optical disc is determined according to the number. I am trying to change it. Therefore, the effect that the memory capacity of the spare area that matches the characteristics of the optical disk can be determined is achieved.

The effects of the present invention will be specifically described. The removable disk currently being developed by the applicant is 650.
It is estimated that the actual required memory capacity of the replacement area for an MB optical disk is several tens of KB, and is 10 MB.
It is possible to reduce the memory capacity of the spare area to 1% or less, as compared with the conventional technology that requires securing the amount. In other words, it can be said that the present invention can increase the memory capacity of the user area in almost all optical disks. Furthermore, in an optical disc which is expected to have a large capacity rapidly in the future, if the capacity of the replacement sector area with respect to the defective sector is maintained at a fixed ratio as before, the capacity of the replacement sector area becomes enormous. Therefore, it is more important to increase the capacity of the user area by making the replacement area variable as in the present invention.

Further, according to the present invention, when the number of the detected initial defect sectors exceeds the memory capacity of the spare area secured in advance, the memory capacity of the user area is reduced and the spare area is replaced. The memory capacity of the area is increased. In this case, the effect that the optical disc treated as a defective optical disc by the conventional technique can be used as a non-defective disc is achieved.

Further, according to the present invention, when one of the use order of the user area and the use order of the spare area is sequentially used from the inner circumference side track,
The other is used sequentially from the track on the outer peripheral side. Therefore, as the memory area is used, the boundary of the used user area and the boundary of the used replacement area are controlled to gradually approach each other from a distant position.
The effect that the optical disk can be used efficiently is achieved.

Further, according to the present invention, the time when the memory capacity of the spare area is changed is set when the command for confirming the memory capacity of the remaining user area is received from the host or at the time of power-on or reset. There is. Therefore, in such a case, the host can always accurately grasp the memory capacity of the remaining user area.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an optical disc drive to which an embodiment of an optical disc device according to the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining track allocation of the optical disc in the example of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram used to explain the contents of a DDS sector in the example of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a diagram used for explaining a state after completion of a disc certifying process on the optical disc of the example of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a diagram used for explaining the contents of a user access mark recorded in the DDS sector of the example of FIG.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart of a program related to handling of user access marks among the programs stored in the ROM in the optical disc drive of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Optical Disc 10 Host Computer 11 Optical Disc Drive 21 CPU AE Replacement Area AEA Basic Replacement Area B0 to B6 Block User Area UAM User Access Mark

Front page continued (72) Inventor Shuji Hirai 6-735 Kitashinagawa, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo Sony Corporation

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A disc certify operation is performed on an optical disc having a user area in which a user can record to detect the number of initial defect sectors, and the spare area in the optical disc is changed according to the detected number of initial defect sectors. An optical disk device having a variable memory capacity. 2. When the number of the detected initial defect sectors exceeds the memory capacity of the spare area secured in advance, the memory capacity of the user area is reduced to reduce the memory capacity of the spare area. The optical disk device according to claim 1, wherein the optical disk device is enlarged. 3. The order of use of the user area and the order of use of the spare area are such that when one is sequentially used from an inner track, the other is sequentially used from an outer track. The optical disk device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein 4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the memory capacity of the spare area is changed when the command for confirming the memory capacity of the remaining user area is received from the host. 2. The optical disk device according to item 1. 5. The optical disk device according to claim 1, wherein the memory capacity of the spare area is changed at power-on or at reset.