JP2003006876A - Information recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a safe optical recording system not damaging or erasing the recorded information by using an inexpensive medium limited in rewritable frequency in a conventional device without changing the hardware or physical specifications but limiting the use of the medium. SOLUTION: In this system, a common medium much smaller than conventional in rewritable frequency is rearranged to record or reproduce with some limits in a common recording/reproducing device, that is to say, specially formatting. This system can easily extend functions, such as a record protection function without changing the hardware or physical specifications and the information is not damaged even when it is accidentally recorded in a device not recognizing the extended function.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an arrangement of recorded data on an information recording medium, and more particularly to an information recording medium in which information is arranged so that recording / reproduction can be performed with a restriction by a recording / reproducing drive which is generally distributed. The present invention relates to a system for recording and reproducing information on an information recording medium with restrictions. Here, the limitation is, for example,
This is to limit the number of times of rewriting of a specific area such as a defect management area.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As an example of an information recording system, an example of a conventional optical recording system will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a conventional optical recording / reproducing apparatus. A laser light source 25 (D
The light emitted from the VD-RAM having a wavelength of about 660 nm passes through the collimator lens 24 and is almost parallel to the light beam 2.
Collimated to 2. The light beam 22 is the optical disc 1
1 is irradiated through the objective lens 23, and the spot 2
1 is formed and then guided to the servo detector 26 and the signal detector 27 through the beam splitter 28, the hologram element 29, and the like. The signals from each detector are subjected to addition / subtraction processing to become servo signals such as tracking error signals and focus error signals, which are input to the servo circuit. The servo circuit controls the position of the driving means 31 of the objective lens 23 and the entire optical head 2 based on the obtained tracking error signal and focus error signal, and positions the light spot 21 in a target recording / reproducing area. The added signal of the detector 27 is input to the signal reproduction block 41. The input signal is subjected to a filtering process, a frequency equalization process, and a digitization process by a signal processing circuit. The digitized digital signal is processed by the address detection circuit and the demodulation circuit. The microprocessor calculates the position of the optical spot 21 on the optical disk 11 based on the address signal detected by the address detection circuit, and controls the automatic position control means to set the optical head 2 and the optical spot 21 to the target recording unit. Position it in the area (sector).

When the instruction from the host device to the optical recording / reproducing device is recording, the microprocessor receives the record data from the host device and stores it in the memory, and at the same time controls the automatic position control means to set the light spot 21. Position to the target recording area. After confirming that the light spot 21 is normally positioned in the recording area by the address signal from the signal reproducing block 41, the microprocessor controls the laser driver or the like to record the data in the memory in the target recording area. .

As shown in FIG. 6, the address signal is arranged in each information recording unit area and is arranged at the head of the recording unit area. Therefore, the address signal is detected immediately before recording by detecting the address signal. The position of the light spot can be confirmed.

FIG. 5 shows, as an example of the above-mentioned optical recording system, a rewritable DVD which is an international standard ISO / IEC-1.
6 shows an example of the operation flow of an optical recording system that drives a DVD-RAM disc defined by the G.6824 or the like.

When a disc is inserted or the power of the optical recording system is turned on, the optical recording system first performs a process of discriminating the type of medium. Usually DVD-
In addition to the RAM medium, it has a reproducing function for a CD-ROM or a DVD-ROM which is a reproduction-only medium. Therefore, the optical recording system first performs a medium type determination process to determine which of the above-described media is used. this,
The method of discrimination processing differs depending on the individual system. For example, there is a system that discriminates the type of the medium from the analog characteristics of the reproduction signal such as the reflectance and the focus error signal. After reproducing the medium physical information holding area provided on the disk substrate, the medium (data) is used to reproduce the medium. There is also one that determines the type of.

When the optical recording system recognizes that the type of medium is the rewritable type, that is, the DVD-RAM, first, the recorded contents such as the defect management information area are inspected to check whether the optical disk has been physically formatted. If it is not physically formatted, it waits until a physical format is instructed by a host device or a user.

If the optical disk has been physically formatted,
The optical recording system waits for an instruction from a user or a host device after performing a recording preparation process such as a calibration process or a logical consistency verification. Upon receiving any command, the optical recording system checks the type of command and, if it is a recording command, performs the recording process. In the case of commands such as playback, format, and disc ejection, the corresponding processing is performed. Normally, these processes end normally, but if the recording fails due to an unexpected reason, error processes such as a retry process and a replacement process are performed.

In the case of a normal DVD-RAM, at the time of this recording processing, it is confirmed by actually reproducing whether or not the recording data is normally recorded, and if necessary, a replacement processing using another recording unit area is performed. By doing so, the reliability of the recorded data is improved. The management information regarding the reallocation of the recording area by the replacement process is recorded in the special area (defect management area) on the recording medium.

As described above, the DVD-RAM is an extremely reliable optical recording system, but basically the recorded data can be freely rewritten, so that it may be erroneously operated by the user or a malfunction of the host device may occur. There is an unavoidable possibility that important recorded data will be erased or rewritten.

Further, in performing the replacement process, it is premised that even if the defect management area is rewritten a number of times sufficiently larger than the number of defects that can be held in the defect management area, recording and reproduction can be performed without any problem. I am trying.

As one protection method, there is a so-called write protect function. However, since this write protection can be freely canceled by the user, it is still impossible to prevent data destruction due to a user's erroneous operation.

An example of a magneto-optical disk will be described as a method for solving such a problem. A magneto-optical disk is a rewritable storage medium that can erase and re-record user data in a user data area where user data is recorded. There is a demand to use it as a storage medium.

For example, the international standard ISO-IEC1156
CCW system (or MO-WOR
In the M system), the control information area provided outside the user data area of the magneto-optical disk includes medium type identification information indicating the type of the magneto-optical disk. The rewritable type and the write-once type can be identified.

When the write-once type magneto-optical disk is mounted, the magneto-optical disk apparatus does not perform the erasing operation and the re-recording operation on the user data area in which the user data is already written. That is, the rewritable magneto-optical disk is provided with a recording protection function for preventing erasing and overwriting. As a result, the write-once type magneto-optical disk and the rewritable type magneto-optical disk having the recording protection function can be accessed by the same magneto-optical disk apparatus, so that the field of application of the magneto-optical disk apparatus is expanded, and
Media costs can also be reduced.

However, a similar method is used for DVD-RAM.
If the present invention is applied to an optical disc system in which only a rewritable standard has already been established, there are the following problems.

A standard for a rewritable disc already exists and is distributed in the market, and an optical disc system for driving an optical disc conforming to the standard is also existing. In such an environment, even if the medium type information in the medium type identification information area is newly defined as in the example of the magneto-optical disc, the existing device cannot be changed, and thus the optical disc having no existing recording protection function. It is not possible to control the drive operation.

In fact, as described above, not all optical recording systems use the medium type identification information for the medium type identification, and the medium type identification information has a new undefined type. Even if the coded information is recorded, the conventional optical recording system cannot recognize the meaning of the coded information, and thus the operation is uncertain.

[0019]

That is, in the above-mentioned conventional example, when a medium having limited functions, for example, a low-priced medium having a small number of rewritable times is introduced, the information on the optical recording medium is recorded by the existing recording device. There was a risk of accidentally destroying.

An object of the present invention is to limit the method of using the medium without changing the hardware or physical specifications, for example, to put a substantial limit on the number of times of rewriting and to provide a medium with a low number of rewritable times at a low cost. Another object of the present invention is to provide a safe optical recording system in which there is no concern that the recorded information will be destroyed or the recorded information will be lost by the conventional device.

[0021]

The following means were used to achieve the object of the present invention.

(1) At least one of the user recording blocks of the information recording medium is a restricted block that cannot be recorded, reproduced, or accessed.

This makes it possible to disable practical use in a system that does not recognize the existence of a restricted block, so that it is possible to force the use of special control software or a special logical format. It is possible to limit how to use the disc. For example, a disk shipped in a special logical format can be prohibited from being reformatted in another format and used. By utilizing this, it becomes possible to safely use a medium having a limited number of rewritable times as described later. (2) The user recording block is an error correction code (ECC) block including a plurality of user sectors. This facilitates application of the present invention to a system (for example, DVD-RAM) that records in ECC block units. The ECC block, which is the unit of recording, does not necessarily have to coincide with the sector, which is the smallest unit of the addressable block as seen from the host system. For example, in a DVD system, one sector can hold 2048 bytes of user data, and an ECC block is composed of 16 sectors, that is, about 32 kB. (3) The user sector has an independent address number, and at least all user recording blocks to which the user sector having the smallest 257 or, more preferably, 513 of the user sectors belongs, cannot be recorded or cannot be reproduced. Alternatively, it is a restricted block that is inaccessible. Alternatively, all the user recording blocks to which the user sector having the largest address number of 257 among the user sectors belongs are at least recordable, unreproducible or inaccessible restricted blocks. That is, the lowest 257 block or 513 block of the user address space and / or the highest 257 block is made at least substantially unusable.

As a result, it is practically impossible to format or reformat the recording medium for use by the ordinary logical formatter software which arranges the file system area at the head of the user area. The format using formatter software other than the software intended by the present invention can be substantially limited, and the method of using the disc can be surely limited. Particularly, sectors 256 and 512 are used as reference sectors (AVDP: Anchor Volume Descrip).
In the UDF file system (tor Pointer),
You can certainly limit the usual formats. Some file systems place system information at the end of the volume space (data area), so it is more desirable to place an unusable area at the end.

(4) An information recording medium having at least a plurality of independently recordable and reproducible user recording blocks and a replacement block for replacing a defective user recording block, and at least one of the replacement blocks. One or more blocks are restricted blocks that cannot be recorded, cannot be reproduced, or cannot be accessed.

As a result, it becomes possible to reliably apply the above-described recording restriction method even to a system having a replacement process (for example, a DVD-RAM).

For the above, an information recording medium having at least a plurality of independently recordable and reproducible user recording blocks and three or more replacement blocks for substituting a defective user recording block, It is desirable that at least three consecutive blocks among the replacement blocks are restricted blocks that cannot be recorded, reproduced, or accessed. In a normal DVD-RAM system, if there is a defect in the block itself which is to be used as a replacement block, the adjacent recording block is automatically reassigned as a replacement block. If three or more blocks to be used are unusable, the re-allocation function cannot be normally performed, so that the use can be more surely restricted. (5) As a means for realizing a non-recordable, non-reproducible or inaccessible restricted block, an address number is a code representing at least an address number and an address error detection code for verifying the correctness of the address number on a recording medium. A medium arranged as physical address data composed of is used so that at least a code word representing an address number and an address error detection code for verifying the correctness of the address number are inconsistent. As a result, address detection cannot be performed with a normal drive, and the relevant portion cannot be recorded, reproduced, or accessed. Since some systems ignore a few address errors, in order to more reliably limit the recording, it is preferable to include a plurality of blocks, more preferably three or more blocks with address mismatch. Is good. (6) The address number is arranged on the recording medium as physical address data composed of at least a code representing the address number and an address error detection code for verifying the correctness of the address number. Among the above, the address number represented by the physical address data is set to be different from the address number of the block for the block that cannot be recorded, cannot be reproduced, or is inaccessible. As a result, it becomes impossible for the normal drive to reach the target address, and the recording, reproduction, or inaccessibility of that portion becomes impossible. (7) An information recording medium having at least two independently recordable / reproducible user recording blocks, in which at least one block is unrecordable, unreproducible, or inaccessible. A map or list information indicating the existing positions or addresses of all the restricted blocks as encoded data or encrypted data is stored in a specific area on the information recording medium, preferably by an embossed pit. It is supposed to be recorded in advance in the read-only area to be recorded.

As a result, only the specific authorized processing system capable of deciphering the cipher can use the recording medium, so that the security can be ensured. (8) The recording medium is shipped in a logical format in advance so that the area excluding the non-recordable, non-reproducible or inaccessible restricted block becomes a substantial user area.

As a result, the medium of the present invention can be recorded / reproduced by the conventional system without any special software. Even in that case, if you format it with another system,
Since the information recording medium is practically unusable, it is possible to substantially limit the usage method different from the intention of the information recording medium provider. For this reason, the recording medium manufacturer can assume a limited use method of the medium, so that the degree of freedom of the specifications is increased and the recording medium can be provided at a substantially low price. (9) Recording / reproduction having at least two or more user recording blocks capable of independent recording / reproduction, and at least one or more of the user recording blocks being a non-recordable, non-reproducible or inaccessible restricted block. A system for using a limited information recording medium in a computer system or a recording / reproducing apparatus having a processing function of performing recording / reproduction control so that the area excluding the above-mentioned restricted block becomes a substantial user area is configured. ,
The above recording restrictions have been realized. The system is constructed, for example, by combining a standard recording / reproducing device with a host device in which special control software is installed.

(10) It has at least two or more user recording blocks that can be independently recorded and reproduced, and at least one or more of the user recording blocks is a restricted block that cannot be recorded, cannot be reproduced, or is inaccessible. Using an information recording medium having a certain recording / reproduction restriction, the coded data or encrypted data held in a specific area on the recording medium is read, and the read data is decrypted or decrypted to perform the decryption of the restricted block. Recording having a processing function of obtaining the arrangement information and performing recording / reproduction control or at least one of logical formats based on the obtained restricted block arrangement information so that all the restricted blocks do not substantially become the user area An information recording / playback system with playback restrictions was constructed.

This makes it easy to add a high level of security to the use, so that it becomes easy to restrict the use of non-authorized users and the use of software. (11) By registering the restricted block as a defect, the restricted block is substantially removed from the user area, or by registering the restricted block as an invisible file, the restricted block is substantially user-registered. An information recording / reproducing system to be excluded from the area was constructed.

This made it possible to use a limited disk. (12) An information recording medium having at least a plurality of independently recordable / reproducible user recording blocks and replacement blocks for replacing defective user recording blocks, and the number of replacement blocks can be rewritten in the recording medium. I made it less than the number of times.

For example, a DVD-RAM having a diameter of 120 mm
In (one side 4.7GB), as a replacement block,
PSA (main replacement area) and SSA (auxiliary replacement area) can be secured. Of these, only PSA is allocated at the time of shipment, and it is newly used by partially registering it as used. The number of possible replacement blocks is set to be smaller than the number of rewritable times determined by the physical characteristics of the recording film of the medium.

As a result, when a new defect is found during use of the medium, the recording / reproducing apparatus performs the replacement registration, and every time this replacement registration process is performed, the defect management, which is a specific area of the medium, is performed. The area will be rewritten once. By using this means, it is possible to limit the number of times the defect management area is rewritten in accordance with this replacement process to the number of usable replacement blocks or less, that is, the number of times of rewriting of the medium or less. There is no fear of exceeding the number of possible times, and the reliability of the medium is improved. (13) At least a plurality of independently recordable / reproducible user recording blocks, replacement blocks for replacing defective user recording blocks, and a defect management table recording area for recording the relationship between defective blocks and replacement blocks In the information recording medium, a plurality of defective blocks and replacement blocks are recorded in advance in the defect management table, and the number of remaining registrable blocks in the defect management table is less than the number of rewritable times of the recording medium.

For example, a DVD-RAM having a diameter of 120 mm
For (single side 4.7 GB), the defect management table shows PD
2 of L (initial defect management table) and SDL (secondary defect management table)
There are seeds, of which about 7,000 sectors in SD, SD
A defect of about 4000 blocks can be registered in L. According to this means, most of the SDLs are replaced and registered at the time of shipment, and further pre-registered as partially used to be used so that the number of defective blocks that can be additionally allocated is newly determined. The number of rewritable times is determined by the physical characteristics of the recording film of the medium.

Normally, when a new defect is found during use of the medium, the recording / reproducing apparatus registers the defect. Every time the defect registration process is performed, a defect management area, which is a specific area of the medium, is recorded. Will be rewritten once. By using this means, it is possible to limit the number of times the defect management area is rewritten in accordance with this defect processing to the number of usable replacement blocks or less, that is, the number of times of rewriting of the medium or less. There is no fear of exceeding the number of possible times, and the reliability of the medium is improved. Here, defect registration is to register a defect as a defect, and is not necessarily the same as assigning a replacement.

Since the replacement allocation of the means (12) and the defect registration of (13) both rewrite the defect management area, the sum of both the number of replacement blocks and the number of remaining defect registerable blocks is calculated. It is desirable to make it smaller than the number of rewritable times of the recording medium.

In the worst case, after the defect allocation of (13), the replacement allocation of the above-mentioned means (12) is performed, and after that, the replacement block is exhausted and the defect registration is carried out as no replacement (13). Since there may be cases in which the defect management area is rewritten in each case, the number of replacement blocks and the number of remaining blocks in which defects can be registered are each smaller than one third of the number of rewritable times of the recording medium. It is more desirable to do so. (14) The total number of the restricted blocks on the information recording medium is set to be larger than the total number of recording blocks that can be registered in the defect management table. Therefore, even if reformatting is performed with medium verification (certification), Reformatting fails because all unrecordable blocks (blocks with restrictions) cannot be registered as defects. That is,
Reformatting can be prohibited (restricted). (15) A block extending over at least one track of the boundary between the restricted block and the normal block on the information recording medium is registered in advance in the initial defect management table as a defective block.

As a result, it becomes possible to look out from the accessible area the recording blocks that straddle the boundary between the recording-restricted portion and the normal block. When registering in the defect management table, it is desirable to register as defect information (P-List in the case of DVD-RAM) in a form in which the defect information is preserved by the formatting process.

[0040]

Embodiment 1 FIG. 3 shows an example of a block diagram of a DVD-RAM recording / reproducing apparatus which is a conventional optical information recording apparatus. First, the operation when a conventional medium having no recording restriction is loaded in this apparatus will be described. A laser light source 25 (DVD-R which is a part of the head 2
In the AM, the light emitted from the wavelength of about 660 nm is collimated through the collimator lens 24 into a substantially parallel light beam 22. The light beam 22 is irradiated onto the optical disk 11 through the objective lens 23 to form the spot 21, and then the beam splitter 28 and the hologram element 2 are formed.
It is guided to the servo detector 26 and the signal detector 27 through 9, etc. The signals from each detector are subjected to addition / subtraction processing to become servo signals such as tracking error signals and focus error signals, which are input to the servo circuit. The servo circuit controls the positions of the objective lens 31 and the entire optical head 2 based on the obtained tracking error signal and focus error signal,
The position of the light spot 21 is positioned in the target recording / reproducing area. The addition signal of the detector 27 is input to the signal reproduction block 41. The input signal is subjected to a filtering process, a frequency equalization process, and a digitization process by a signal processing circuit. The digitized digital signal is processed by the address detection circuit and the demodulation circuit. A physical sector number (PSN), which is physical address information, is obtained by the address detection circuit. The address information obtained here corresponds to the recording sector of the medium. In the DVD-RAM system, the PSN at the head of the user data area starts from 31000h. However, in an external recording device such as this device, which is connected to a higher-level device such as a PC, if the start address of the recording area is different for each type of device, the process in the higher-level device becomes complicated, and thus the higher-level device is usually used. Access from the device using the logical block address (LBA). In the device of this embodiment, the conversion between the LBA and PSN is performed by the microprocessor in the device, but an address conversion circuit may be used as in the example of FIG. The microprocessor discriminates the type of the loaded medium (see FIG. 4), and when the medium is a DVD-RAM, defect management outside the data area (two locations on the inner and outer sides) Defect management table (PDL and SD) secured in the area (DMA)
L) is read, interlacing of defective sectors and replacement processing are performed, and PSN and LBA are associated. Diameter 12
DVD-RAM with 0 mm and single-sided capacity of 4.7 GB
In the disc, the user data area is the innermost PS
From N = 31000h to outermost PSN = 265F5Fh
Is located in. Of these, 310 for replacement of defective sectors
An area from 00h to 341FFh is secured as a basic spare area (PSA). This PSA is 1280
It includes 0 (3200h) spare sectors. DVD-R
In AM, in addition to PSA, an additional spare area (SSA) can be secured in the outermost circumference. In this example, P on the outermost circumference
4 from SN = 259F60 to PSN = 265F5F
Secure SSA for 9152 sectors. As a result, the actually usable user data area is from PSN = 34200h to PSN = 259F5Fh. 22 in between
Although 52128 sectors are included, since the DVD-RAM disc has the zone CLV configuration, 2245920 excluding the guard area at the zone boundary becomes the user sector. Therefore, LBA = 0 (PSN = 342) in the user sector.
00h) to LBA = 2245919 (PSN = 259
LBAs up to F5Fh) are associated. There are two types of defect management tables, PDL (primary defect management table) and SDL (secondary defect management table) (FIG. 11). Normally, the PDL is used to register an initial defect found at the time of shipping the medium or certifying the medium. P of the defective sector in the PDL
The SN is recorded, and the recording / reproducing apparatus does not allocate the LBA to the sector having the PSN listed in the PDL (Slipping). The recording / reproducing apparatus allocates LBAs so that the user data area extends into the PSA by the amount of the sectors thus slipped. (To be precise, the head portion of the user data area shifts into the PSA slightly more than the number of registered PDLs. This is because the DVD-RAM is divided into a plurality of recording zones in the radial direction and the boundary portion of this zone. Therefore, if there is a fractional sector that is less than the defect management block (16 sectors), that part cannot be specified.) That is, due to the defect management, the head of the user data area has a smaller PSN than PSN = 34200h. Shift to (inner side). A maximum of 7679 defective sector information can be registered in PDL. The recording / reproducing apparatus registers defects in use in the SDL and allocates replacement sectors. At this time, the replacement is performed in units of error correction code blocks (ECC blocks) consisting of 16 sectors. In the SDL, the PS of the first sector of the defective block is
A one-to-one correspondence between N and the address of the first sector of the replacement block is listed. Defect information of 3837 blocks can be registered in this SDL. Since the recording / reproducing apparatus sequentially registers defects found during use in the SDL, the SDL is rewritten about 4000 times which is the number of registrations possible.

Normally, a DVD-RAM can be rewritten about 100,000 times, so rewriting about 4000 times does not cause any problem. However, in a phase-change recording medium such as a DVD-RAM, in order to enable rewriting many times, a subtle adjustment of the laminated structure for suppressing the flow of the recording film material and the recording film and protective film material A special layer for suppressing the intermingling or the like is required, and it is necessary to make a delicate adjustment of the composition of the medium recording film or the laminated structure, which causes an increase in the cost of medium production. That is, the media price increases.

Conversely, the number of times of rewriting is, for example, several 100
If the number of times is limited to a few thousand times, it is not necessary to make fine adjustments to the composition of the medium recording film and the laminated structure, which simplifies the laminated structure and expands the medium manufacturing margin, resulting in the provision of a very low-priced medium. Is possible.

Therefore, in the present embodiment, it is considered to use a medium having a rewriting frequency of several hundreds to 1,000 times as a low-cost medium. For example, the number of rewrites is 1
In the case of 000 times, if a part of the user data area is rewritten frequently (there is an area that is frequently rewritten in the part of the file system even in normal use), the recording film characteristic deteriorates in that area, and recording / reproduction is performed. An error will occur. However, since the DVD-RAM has a defect management function, such a deteriorated area is treated as a defect, and therefore a spare sector (replacement block) that is not deteriorated is allocated. Since such allocation can be performed each time deterioration occurs, the effective number of rewrites seen from the user is 10
It can be secured more than ten thousand times. However, if the replacement area reallocation is repeated, it is necessary to rewrite the SDL each time, and thus the SDL itself may be deteriorated. D
In the VD-RAM, since the replacement process of the SDL itself is not performed, in the worst case, the SDL information may be lost and the information of the entire recording medium may become inaccessible.
Therefore, in the present embodiment, the following recording medium is used so that the medium having the limited number of rewritable times can be used in the conventional system without any problem (see FIG. 4). (1) 4096 sectors at the beginning of the user data area (PSN = 34
200h ~ PSN = 351FFh) and the first used 8704 sectors (PSN = 32000h ~ PSN = 34200h) of PSAs total 1280
The 0 sector is set as the unrecordable area. (2) PSN = 255F60h to PSN = 265F5 at the end of the user area
Up to Fh, 4096 blocks (65536 sectors) were set as the unrecordable area. (3) The non-recordable area is realized by making the ID error detection data (IED) (see FIG. 8) of the ID, which is the address data, inconsistent. (4) SSA is not assigned. Therefore, PSN = 265F5Fh at the end of the user data area. (The total number of user sectors is 2295072.) (5) A total of 7679 sectors, which are the known defective sectors other than the above (1) and (2) and a part of the unrecordable sectors in (1), are registered in advance in the PDL as P-List. For this reason,
The top of the user area shifts from PSN = 34200h to the smaller side by about 7670 sectors. That is, the first sector of the physical user area (LBA = 0) is located near PSN = 32400h. (6) Of the area of (2) above, 3734 blocks (LBA = 22
(Except for the recording block corresponding to 94815) was registered in the SDL in advance. However, when registering, set the SLR flag to 1b,
No replacement sector is assigned. (7) LBA = 256, LBA = 512, LBA = final LBA-256 = 2294815
The recording block corresponding to is registered in SDL in advance,
Assigned a replacement. At that time, as a replacement destination, PSN = 31640h
I used PSN = 3167Fh. (8) Logical formatting was performed in advance with the UDF file system. At that time, the first 1228 of the user data area
8 sectors (3000h) and the last 65536 sectors (10000h) are not used. (9) The number of rewritable times of the medium (recording film) was set to 300 times or more.

The operating principle of this embodiment will be described below. In this embodiment, the unrecordable area exists, but the unrecordable area does not exist in the logical user area (logical volume space) which is the user recording area after logical formatting, and therefore there is no problem in normal use. For UDF format, Volume Recognition Sequence (VRS) and AVD
Only P (Anchor Volume Descriptor Pointer) has a fixed layout position, VRS has LBA = 16, AVDP has LBA = 256, LBA.
= 512, LBA = N-256 (however, N is the last LBA), it is supposed to record in two or more places. In the case of the 4.7 GB DVD-RAM which is the case of this embodiment, AVDP is recorded at two locations of LBA = 256 and LBA = 2294815. The AVDP describes the location of the two main volume descriptor sequences (VDS). In this embodiment, the VDSs are arranged in 16 sectors from LBA = 12288 and 16 sectors from LBA = 12288 + 16. The LVID (logical volume integrity descriptor) is arranged in the subsequent sector, and the logical volume space is arranged so that it starts from LBA = 12288 + 256 and ends with LBA = 2229279 (= 2295072-65536-1). That is, the number of sectors belonging to the logical user area after logical formatting is 2216992, and its capacity (logical volume space) is about 4.54 GB. Space bitmaps, file set descriptors, directories, user files, etc. are arranged in the logical volume space.

In this embodiment, LBA that describes AVDP = 256
And, LBA = 2294815 and LBA = 16 of VDS are originally located in the non-recordable area, but since they are assigned in advance outside the non-recordable area in PSA, the recording of the assigned replacement destination is actually made. It is recorded in the block (PSN = 31640h to PSN = 3167Fh). All other file system data is allocated to a non-recordable area in the user area.

When a defective sector is newly generated due to deterioration due to rewriting or adhesion of dust during use of the medium of the present embodiment, replacement areas are sequentially allocated from PSN = 3163Fh to PSN = 31000h. . In this embodiment, PSN = 3164
Since 0h to PSN = 3167Fh are assigned and registered as replacement destinations in advance, the area between PSN = 31680h and PSN = 341FFh in PSA is regarded as a used replacement area and is not allocated as a replacement sector. Therefore, it is possible to perform defect processing on a new defect without any problem. In this embodiment, only 100 blocks (640h) of PSN = 3163F to 31000h are used as the replacement area. Since there are only 100 blocks in the replacement area, the maximum number of replacement assignments is
100 times, that is, the number of times of rewriting the SDL associated with the replacement allocation is also limited to 100 times.

In DVD-RAM, in addition to replacement allocation,
A function is provided that only registers defects and does not perform replacement allocation. In this case, the defect is S as in the replacement process.
Although it will be registered in the DL, replacement allocation is not performed, and setting the flag SLR to 1b indicates that replacement allocation is not performed (see FIG. 11). Even in this case, SD
Since it is registered in L as an entry, the SDL is rewritten. In the present embodiment, as in (5), the replacement allocation is in 4 blocks, and in (8),
Only 3733 (pseudo) defects with SLR flags are pre-S
Since it is registered in the DL, the maximum number of defect registrations is 3837, and the remaining registerable number of SDL is 100. Therefore, S
The maximum number of defects registered by LR is 100.

Depending on the usage, as a combination of replacement registration and SLR registration, 100 SLR registrations are first performed, and then 100 defectives registered with SLR are sequentially replaced and assigned. Although the replacement block is deteriorated, it is tried to be reallocated, but the replacement block is exhausted, so it is possible to change all to SLR again in the worst case.

In this embodiment, the number of SDL rewrites is limited to 100 × 3 = 300 even in such a worst case. Therefore, in the medium of this embodiment that can be rewritten 300 times or more, there is no concern that the SDL itself will deteriorate. Therefore, the medium of the present invention can be used in a conventional recording / reproducing apparatus or file system without any problem.

Conversely, the number of replacement blocks and the SDL
If the remaining number of internal defect registration entries is limited to one-third or less of the rewritable count of the medium, the number of SDL updates will not exceed the rewritable count of the medium.

Regarding the PDL, even if the new defect register replacement process is performed, it is basically not rewritten unless reformatted.

Therefore, by using a recording medium satisfying the above conditions (1) to (9), it is possible to limit the number of times of rewriting of the defect management area so as not to exceed the number of possible replacements [Second Embodiment] Then, consider a case where the medium of the previous embodiment is mistakenly reformatted. Reformatting has a logical format that rebuilds only the file system and a physical format that initializes SDL for defect management.
First, consider the former logical format. When the logical format is performed by the normal method, in the normal logical formatter which is a conventional application, most of the file system data is stored near the beginning of the user area, that is,
Place from LBA = 0 to near LBA = 512, and user file also has LBA =
It is recorded sequentially from around 256. However, approximately 256 blocks near the beginning of these user areas (excluding approximately 7680 sectors registered in the PDL from around PSN = 32400h to PSN = 35200h) cannot be recorded, so replacement processing is performed and replacement is performed. Areas are allocated. But this 256
Since the number of blocks is larger than 100 blocks, which is the number of replacement areas, the replacement area overflows immediately after use, resulting in a recording error. Because of this, the user quickly finds that they cannot be reformatted and used. Therefore, the user cannot substantially reformat the medium to use the medium.

Next, consider the case of physical formatting.
Physical formatting loses SDL information, but PDL
Since the P-List therein is stored, the spare area is used from around PSN = 32400h as shown in FIG. When trying to record the file system after the physical format, for example
Since the sector corresponding to LBA = 256 is in the unrecordable area, it cannot be recorded and the replacement process shown in FIG. 7 is performed. However, since the replacement destination is also in the unrecordable area, after a few attempts (M times), the abnormal process at the bottom right of FIG. Therefore, the user cannot re-physically format and use the medium of this embodiment.

In the DVD-RAM, when the spare area is exhausted, there is a function of SSA expansion / allocation for adding a spare area later, but in the present embodiment, even if SSA is allocated, at the beginning of use of SSA. There is the final PS
Since recording is not possible near N, SSA cannot be used because recording will fail even if a replacement sector is allocated in SSA.

For the re- (physical) format, SDL is used as PDL
There is also a method of converting to P-List, but in this embodiment, the PDL is filled with P-List from the beginning. After all, this method cannot be reformatted.

There is also a method of certifying at the time of formatting, but the PDL is filled up with P-Lists, and in the medium of this embodiment in which the total number of unrecordable areas is larger than the SDL registerable number, the format with certification is also used. It will never succeed.

Thus, the user cannot reformat the media in any way as long as the conventional formatting application is used. But,
Since it is possible to erase a normal file without reformatting, there is no inconvenience in use. Therefore, it suffices to inform the user that the medium of this embodiment cannot be reformatted at the time of sale, and there is no possibility of causing confusion. Furthermore, even if the user reformats by mistake, the user will immediately notice that there is a risk that all user information will be lost due to deterioration of the medium by continuing to use it in an incorrect usage method. There is no.

Of course, it is desirable not only to let the user know by packaging at the time of sale, but also to indicate on the label surface of the medium that "it cannot be used when reformatted", if possible. It is also preferable to use a method in which the color of the label and the color of the cartridge are made different from each other so that they can be easily distinguished from the ordinary reformattable media. Example 3 An example of a method of forming a non-recordable area will be described. DV
In the D-RAM, as shown in FIG. 6, a physical ID (address information) is arranged in the form of embossed pits at the head of each recording sector. In order to ensure reliability, address information for identifying one sector is quadruple recorded. The recording / reproducing apparatus determines that the address is normal when even one of the four pieces of address information can be normally reproduced.
In order to make it unrecordable, it is necessary to prevent all these four address information from being reproduced normally.

As a method for preventing each address from being reproduced normally, I corresponding to the ID error detection code (IED) added to each address information as shown in FIG.
Inconsistent with D. Specifically, the original matched IED plus 1 was used. Thus, IED
The logical method of making the above described inconsistent can be applied at the time of mastering of the medium, and is automatically applied to all the medium at the same time when the substrate is formed, which is advantageous because it can be performed without increasing the cost. In the present embodiment, the means for adding 1 to the IED is used, but it is also possible to replace one byte at the beginning of each ID with another one after conversion into a recording code (channel bit). Which method is easy to use depends on the circuit configuration of the formatter used for mastering.

In this embodiment, instead of making all the IDs in the unrecordable area unreproducible, at least the first two sectors and the last three sectors in one track are reproducible.
More specifically, in the inner peripheral part, the first 2 sectors can be reproduced, the next 8 sectors cannot be reproduced, the next 4 sectors can be reproduced,
The following 8 sectors are unplayable, and the last 3 sectors are playable. When applied to the outer periphery, the first 2 sectors can be played, the next 10 sectors cannot be played, the next 5 sectors can be played, the next 10 sectors cannot be played, 4 sectors can be played, 1
0 sector cannot be reproduced, 5 sectors can be reproduced, 10 sectors cannot be reproduced, and the last 3 sectors can be reproduced. In this way, since some addresses in the track can be reproduced, there is no problem in access. Also, in this example,
Since the sectors near the beginning and the end of the track can be reproduced, the ID information of the land / groove switching portion can be surely reproduced, so that the stability of the servo is ensured.
Further, eight or more sectors in which the ID cannot be reproduced are continuously arranged. As a result, at least 8 sector IDs in one ECC block (error correction code block) cannot be reproduced. Further, among them, at least 6 sectors are constructed such that unreproducible sectors are continuous. Depending on the recording / reproducing apparatus, there is a system configured to automatically interpolate and record even if there is a sector in which the ID cannot be reproduced during recording. However, even in a system having such an interpolating function, the ID is reproduced. It is possible to surely cause a recording error by making several impossible sectors continuous. That is, the unrecordable area can be intentionally formed.

Further, unlike the present embodiment, the IDs of all the one round
There is also a method of making it impossible to reproduce or reproducing a completely different address. In that case, the area becomes inaccessible or unreproducible. [Embodiment 4] As a method of rendering the ID portion unreproducible in Embodiment 3, the ID portion was irradiated with recording power to generate a phase change mark. As a result, the signal level of the ID part fluctuates and reproduction becomes impossible. Since this method does not require any modification to the stamper of the disc, if it is found that the number of rewritable times is insufficient after producing a small amount of sample or after producing the medium, instead of discarding the disc as a defective product, Since it can be reused as a price medium, effective use of resources can be achieved. Further, by using this method, even a disc manufactured in a poor production environment with a low yield can be shipped as a disc having different performance depending on the quality.

To apply this method, it is desirable from the viewpoint of manufacturing efficiency to use a device such as an initialization device that can simultaneously form marks on the PIDs of a plurality of tracks. [Embodiment 5] In Embodiment 3, instead of making the ID portion unreproducible, PS which is the synchronization signal at the sector head in the recording area
(PreSYNC) and SY0 are formed at a track where a total of 5 bytes are recorded, that is, a guide groove is intermittently formed. DVD-RAM
In case of, the position where the sync signal is recorded is about 60 from the header.
It is a position apart from the bite. Since there is a recording position shift of 8 bytes to improve the rotation fluctuation and the number of rewrites, a guide groove that forms a track of 20 bytes from the 50th byte to the 70th byte was formed intermittently at a 5-channel bit period. As a result, the level fluctuation of the reproduction signal in the vicinity of the synchronization signal becomes severe, and the synchronization signal cannot be detected during reproduction. Since PS and SY0 are absolutely indispensable for detecting the beginning of the recording area of a sector, as a result, about 100 bytes near the beginning of a sector cannot be reliably reproduced. If the first 100 bytes of each sector cannot be played back, the recorded data cannot be played back substantially. In this method, only 20 bytes per sector, that is, only a little less than 1% of the area of the track, is made different from the normal one, so there is no risk of adversely affecting the servo or access. Can be processed.

Therefore, instead of the intermittent tracks as described above, for example, a burst cutting method in which a high power laser for recording a bar code (BCA) is used to burn off a part of the recording film is also used. be able to.
This method can process one disk in a short time,
Suitable for both mass production and small volume production. [Sixth Embodiment] FIG. 10 shows an example applied to a DVD-RAM having a diameter of 80 mm. The structure of the recording medium is as follows. (1) PS at the beginning of the user area (4096 sectors)
The recording blocks (total 8320 sectors) from PSN = 31380h to PSN = 333FFh belonging to A are set as the unrecordable area. (2) 4096 sectors (256 blocks) from PSN = 0E0220h to 0E121Fh at the end of the user area are set as the unrecordable area. (3) The non-recordable area is realized by making the ID error detection data (IED) (see FIG. 8) of the ID, which is the address data, inconsistent. (4) SSA is not assigned. Therefore, PSN = 0E121Fh is set at the end of the user data area. (The total number of user sectors is 714480) (5) A total of 4095 sectors, which are known defective sectors other than (1) and (2) above and a part of unrecordable sectors in (1), are PD
L was previously registered as P-List. Therefore, the head of the user area is shifted from PSN = 32400h to the smaller side by about 4095 sectors. That is, the first sector of the physical user area (LBA = 0) is located near PSN = 31400h. (6) The last 3334 blocks of the user data area (LBA =
(Except for the recording block corresponding to 714223) is registered in advance in the SDL. However, when registering, set the SLR flag to 1b,
No replacement sector is assigned. (7) LBA = 16, LBA = 256, LBA = 512, LBA = final LBA-256 =
The recording block corresponding to 714223 was registered in the SDL in advance and the replacement was assigned. In that case, PSN =
I used PSN = 3234Fh from 31320h. (8) Logical formatting was performed in advance with the UDF file system. At that time, 8448 at the beginning of the user data area
The sector (2100h) and the last 53344 sector (3334 block) are not used. (9) The number of rewritable times of the medium (recording film) is 600 times or more.

The operating principle of this embodiment will be described below. In the present embodiment, the unrecordable area exists as in the first embodiment, but the unrecordable area is the logical user area (logical volume space) which is the user recording area after logical formatting.
There is no problem in normal use because it does not exist. UDF
In case of format, Volume Recognition Sequence (VR
S) and AVDP (Anchor Volume Descriptor Pointer)
Only the placement position is determined, VRS has LBA = 16, AVD
P is LBA = 256, LBA = 512, LBA = N-256 (where N is the final LB
It is supposed to be recorded in two or more places of A). In the DVD-RAM with a diameter of 80 mm, which is the case of this embodiment, the LBA
= 256 and LBA = 714223 to record AVDP. The AVDP describes the location of the two main volume descriptor sequences (VDS). In this embodiment, the VRS is set to 16 sectors from LBA = 8448 and LBA = 8448 +
It is arranged in 16 sectors from 16. In the subsequent sector, LV
An ID (logical volume integrity descriptor) is arranged, and the logical volume space is arranged so that it starts from LBA = 8704 and ends at LBA = 661135. That is, the user capacity (logical volume space) after logical formatting is about 1.33 gigabytes. Space bitmaps, file set descriptors, directories, user files, etc. are arranged in the logical volume space.

In this embodiment, LBA = 25 that describes AVDP
6 and LBA = 714223 and VBA recording LBA = 16
Is originally located in the non-recordable area, but is assigned to the outside of the non-recordable area in the PSA in advance. Therefore, the assigned recording block of the replacement destination (PSN = 31320h to 3135F) is actually used.
It is recorded in h). All other file system data is allocated to a non-recordable area in the user area.

When a defective sector is newly generated due to deterioration due to rewriting or adhesion of dust during use of the medium of the present embodiment, replacement areas are sequentially allocated from PSN = 3131Fh to PSN = 31000h. . In this embodiment, PSN = 3
Since 1320h is assigned and registered as a replacement destination in advance, an area between PSN = 31360h and PSN = 32400h in PSA is regarded as a used replacement area and is not allocated as a replacement sector. Therefore, it is possible to perform defect processing on a new defect without any problem. In this embodiment, only 50 blocks (320 sectors) from PSN = 3131Fh to PSN = 31000h are used as the replacement area. 50 spare areas
Since there are only blocks, the maximum number of replacement allocations is 50, that is, the number of SDL rewrites associated with replacement allocation is limited to 50.

In the DVD-RAM, in addition to the replacement allocation,
A function is provided that only registers defects and does not perform replacement allocation. In this case, the defect is S as in the replacement process.
Although it will be registered in the DL, replacement allocation is not performed, and setting the flag SLR to 1b indicates that replacement allocation has not been performed (see FIG. 11). Even in this case, SD
Since it is registered in L as an entry, the SDL is rewritten. In this embodiment, as shown in (5), the replacement allocation is 4 blocks, and as in (8), 3333 defects having the SLR flag are preliminarily SDL.
The maximum number of registered defects is 3837 because it is registered in S
The remaining number of DLs that can be registered is 500. Therefore, the defect registration by SLR is limited to 500 times at maximum.

Depending on the usage situation, as a combination of replacement registration and SLR registration, 500 SLR registrations are performed first, and then replacement allocation is performed sequentially for 50 registrations with SLRs. Although the replacement block will be re-allocated due to deterioration, etc., the worst case may be that all the replacement blocks are changed to SLR again because the replacement blocks are exhausted.

In this embodiment, the number of SDL rewrites is limited to 500 + 50 + 50 = 600 even in such a worst case. Therefore, in the medium of this embodiment that can be rewritten 600 times or more, there is no concern that the SDL itself will deteriorate. Therefore, the medium of the present invention can be used in a conventional recording / reproducing apparatus or file system without any problem.

Conversely, it is twice the number of replacement blocks,
If the sum of the number of remaining defect registration entries in the SDL is limited to the number of rewritable times of the medium or less, the number of SDL updates does not exceed the rewritable number of the medium.

Even if new defect registration or replacement processing is performed, the PDL is basically not rewritten unless reformatted.

Therefore, by using a recording medium satisfying the above conditions (1) to (9), it is possible to limit the number of times of rewriting of the defect management area so as not to exceed the number of possible replacements [Example 7] In the embodiment, the non-recordable areas are distributed and arranged in the entire user area, and the information regarding the existing position is recorded as the disc manufacturer information as the read-only data on the disc. In this embodiment, an example of a dedicated device driver is shown. A dedicated device driver reads the existing position data of the non-recordable area from the medium, registers it as an invisible file so that the non-recordable area does not enter the user area, and performs address conversion for recording / playback. have. At the same time, by reading the information about the number of rewritable times of the medium from the medium, it is possible to limit the reformat and the recording method according to the number of recordable times of the medium.
As a limitation of the recording method, for example, the number of times of rewriting of the medium can be remarkably reduced by limiting the sequential recording to the CD-R without performing the random recording.

The feature of the present embodiment is that there are unrecordable (recording restricted) areas in various places of the user area so that recording and reproduction cannot be performed by the conventional device driver. That is, dedicated software is required for recording and reproduction. By utilizing this, it is possible to construct a dedicated system as shown in the upper right of FIG. 1, for example. In a dedicated system,
It becomes possible to use only a file system based on sequential recording so that the number of times of rewriting of a part of the medium does not increase extremely. [Embodiment 8] Another embodiment of the optical recording system of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. With respect to the conventional medium, recording / reproducing can be performed using a standard recording / reproducing apparatus and standard control software (for example, a device driver attached to the OS). On the other hand, regarding a low-priced medium that has a limited number of rewritable times, as in Example 1-6, a specific area on the medium is set to be unrecordable, and a special logical format is applied before shipment. , The operation of standard control software can be restricted. In this case, even if the user reformats and tries to use the medium, it cannot be practically used because of the above-mentioned unrecordable area, so the user mistakenly uses the user's own format or driver. By using a low-priced medium with a limited number of rewritable times, the risk of user data being destroyed or lost can be eliminated. Of course, when the standard device and the dedicated control software as in the fourth embodiment are used in combination, the user can reformat the medium and use the medium. The number of times can be secured sufficiently.

In any case, the recording / playback function-equipped medium is
It is a feature of the present invention that recording and reproduction can be safely performed by a conventional device (standard device). [Embodiment 9] In this embodiment, a non-recordable area is arranged as shown in FIG. 12 so that a medium having a limited number of rewritable times can be used in a conventional DVD-RAM recording / reproducing system without any problem. As described above, a DVD-RAM medium having a diameter of 80 mm in which defect information was registered in advance in the defect management table was used. In this embodiment, a plurality of defective blocks and replacement blocks are recorded in advance in the defect management table without being allocated, and the number of registrable remaining blocks in the defect management table is set smaller than the number of rewritable times of the recording medium. Here is an example. In this medium, as shown in FIG. 12, unrecordable areas are arranged in two places, and 256 sectors before and after the unrecordable areas are set as "guard" areas in advance, and the primary defect management table (PDL,
13 (a)). There are various entries to be registered in the PDL, but here, the P-List is used because there is no fear of losing information due to the format.
In the figure, the PSN at the head of the user area differs depending on the number of actual defects. Although these actual defective portions are registered in the PDL in advance, some of the sectors cannot be used even if the registered sector and the fractional number due to the registration result.
Since recording is performed in error correction block units in the DVD-RAM, the total number of sectors that cannot be used due to defect registration is a multiple of 16. That is, if the total number of blocks that cannot be used due to registration is N blocks, the PSN at the beginning of the user area is PSN = 32200h-16 * N. The area from the head of the user area to the non-recordable area of PSN = 31D00h is also recorded in the PDL as a P-list, similar to the guard.

The basic spare area (PSA) is placed from immediately before the beginning of the user area until PSN = 31000h, but the spare block of PSN = 316A0h is set to PSN = 0E01D0h.
It is registered in the secondary defect management table (SDL) in advance as a replacement block of the user block of. This allows PSN
The area in the PSA from = 316B0h to PSA = 32200h-16 * N is considered to be used, and the non-recordable area therein is not used either. Therefore, the recording medium can be used without any problem. We left exactly 100 blocks in the PSA as unused replacements.

In this embodiment, the auxiliary spare area (SSA)
Is assigned in advance. Its capacity is 3648 blocks. In this embodiment, X out of 3648 blocks
Except for −100 blocks, SLR = 1, that is, “replacement destination unassigned” was registered as a defect in the SDL.
As a result, the portion of the SSA registered in the SDL with SLR = 1 cannot be used as a replacement block for subsequent use, so that the unused portion 1 of the PSA cannot be used.
Together with the 00 block, the total number of available replacement blocks is X blocks.

The number X can be set according to the number of rewritable times of the medium. Even if various usage conditions are taken into consideration, in order to limit the number of actual rewritings of the defect management table to the rewritable number or less, when the number of rewritables is Y, it is preferable that X ≦ Y / 3 as described above. .

The number of unused replacement blocks is X, and the number of additionally registerable entries in the SDL is 88 + X. Therefore, 88 + X defects can be additionally registered in the SDL.

Considering the case where the number of times of rewriting becomes the worst, first, 88 + X of these are used for (provisionally) registering defects with SLR = 1, and then, of these, X defects are SSA and PSA. There is a case in which it is registered as a replacement in the inside, and then the replacement destination is deteriorated and so on and can be rewritten to SLR = 1 again.

In this case, the number of times SDL is rewritten is 3X + 88.
Becomes Therefore, the number of rewritable times is, for example, 3000
When the medium is used once, if X = 300 is set, the maximum number of times of rewriting becomes 988, and the medium can be safely used.

Here, the reason why 100 unused spare blocks are secured in the PSA is to secure access performance. An area that is frequently rewritten when used in a normal PC environment is a file management area or the like, which exists in the inner peripheral portion of the disk. When these areas reach the number of rewritable times, the replacement processing is performed. However, if the replacement area is secured in the inner peripheral portion, the movement amount is small and the access can be performed quickly, so that the deterioration of the performance after the replacement is small. Therefore, in this embodiment, a spare block for replacement is secured in the PSA in the inner peripheral portion.

The reason why the unrecordable area is arranged in the outermost periphery of the user area is to prevent the expansion of the SSA. Even if the user performs the SSA expansion process, the beginning of the expanded area is located in the unrecordable area and cannot be used as a replacement. Therefore SD
There is no concern that L will be rewritten. Even when the user actually uses the non-recordable area in the outer peripheral portion, since the number of blocks in this area is at most 64 blocks, it can be used without any problem by the replacement process. As another example different from the present embodiment, there is also a method of preserving SSA in advance including the unrecordable area.

FIGS. 14 and 15 show a 120 mm DVD.
-The example of the case of RAM is shown, but it is essentially the same as the above except that the address is different.

[0084]

As described above, by using the present invention, it is possible to easily realize the extended function such as the recording protection function without changing the hardware and the physical specifications, and to recognize the existence of the extended function. It is possible to provide a safe optical recording system that does not worry about information being accidentally recorded and information being destroyed.

The effect of the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. For example, the method of forming the unrecordable area described in the second embodiment is not limited to the IED mismatch. For example, a pit may be provided in a part of the recording track, or recording may be performed with a strong laser beam. It may be formed by modifying the film. Although the number of usable blocks in the PSA is 253 in Embodiments 1 and 3, this number can be changed according to the number of rewritable times of the medium. For example, when using a medium that can be rewritten 100 times,
The SDL may be initially registered so that the number of usable blocks in A is 100 or less. In the method of the present embodiment, for example, it is difficult to suppress the deterioration of the trial writing area. Therefore, if possible, it is preferable to secure the number of times of rewriting about 1000 times so that the number of usable blocks in the PSA is also about 1000. desirable. In that case, the arrangement of the unusable area of the medium may or may not be changed from that described above. File system (logical format)
As an example, a random recording UDF is used.
In particular, if the number of rewritable times is strongly limited, it is possible to use a write-once or sequential recording file system. In that case, for example, it is preferable to use the encryption so that it operates only with a specific device driver as in the fourth embodiment. Further, although the DVD-RAM is taken up as the conventional optical disk in the above-mentioned embodiment, this is also a technique basically applicable to all rewritable media.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram showing the purpose and effect of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an example of an optical recording / reproducing device.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an example of an optical recording / reproducing device.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a logical format of the information recording medium of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the optical recording / reproducing device.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing how to arrange address information.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating the operating principle of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing how to arrange address information.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example in which the information recording medium of the present invention is logically formatted by a conventional device.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a logical format of the information recording medium of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a configuration of a defect management table.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing an example of how to arrange address information.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of how to register in a defect management table.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing an example of how to arrange address information.

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing an example of how to register in a defect management table.

[Explanation of symbols]

11 ... Optical disc, 2 ... Optical head, 21 ... Optical spot,
22 ... Light beam, 23 ... Objective lens, 24 ... Collimator
Lens, 25 ... Laser, 26 ... Detector, 27 ... Detector,
28 ... Beam splitter, 29 ... Hologram element, 31
... lens actuator, 41 ... signal reproduction block.

Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification code FI theme code (reference) G11B 20/18 512 G11B 20/18 512Z 572 572C 572F 574 574E 576 576C (72) Inventor Yoshiko Nishi Kokubunji, Tokyo F-term in Central Research Laboratory, Hitachi, Ltd. (reference) 5B018 GA04 HA26 MA16 5B082 JA11 5D044 AB01 BC04 CC06 DE02 DE29 DE49 DE54 DE62 EF05 GK12 5D090 AA01 BB05 CC02 CC14 DD03 EE01 FF09 FF15 FF36 GG32

Claims (22)

[Claims] 1. An information recording medium having two or more user recording blocks that can be independently recorded and reproduced, and at least one of the user recording blocks is unrecordable, unreproducible or inaccessible. An information recording medium characterized by being an attached block. 2. The information recording medium is arranged with physical address data composed of a code representing an address number and an address error detection code for verifying the correctness of the address number, and the restricted block is the address. 2. The code word representing the number and the address error detection code for verifying the correctness of the address number are inconsistent.
The information recording medium described in. 3. The information recording medium is arranged with physical address data composed of a code representing an address number and an address error detection code for verifying the correctness of the address number, and the restricted block is the physical block. The information recording medium according to claim 1, wherein the address number represented by the address data is different from the address number of the restricted block. 4. The information recording medium according to claim 1, wherein the user recording block is an error correction code block including a plurality of user sectors. 5. The user sector has an independent address number, and at least all user recording blocks to which the user sector having the smallest number 257 of the address numbers belongs are unrecordable, unreproducible or inaccessible. 5. The block according to claim 4, wherein the block is an attached block.
The information recording medium described in. 6. The user sector has an independent address number, and at least all user recording blocks to which the user sector having the smallest 513 of the address numbers belongs are at least unrecordable, unreproducible or inaccessible. 5. The block according to claim 4, wherein the block is an attached block.
The information recording medium described in. 7. The largest 257 of the address numbers
7. The information recording medium according to claim 4, wherein all the user recording blocks to which the user sector having the respective number belongs are at least non-recordable, non-reproducible or inaccessible restricted blocks. 8. An information recording medium having at least a plurality of independently recordable / reproducible user recording blocks and replacement blocks for replacing defective user recording blocks, wherein at least one of the replacement blocks is provided. An information recording medium characterized in that the block and above are restricted blocks that cannot be recorded, cannot be reproduced, or are inaccessible. 9. An information recording medium having at least a plurality of independently recordable / reproducible user recording blocks and three or more replacement blocks for replacing defective user recording blocks, wherein the replacement blocks are An information recording medium, characterized in that at least three consecutive blocks are non-recordable, non-reproducible or inaccessible restricted blocks. 10. An information recording medium having at least two or more independently recordable / reproducible user recording blocks, wherein at least one block in the user recording block is non-recordable, non-reproducible or inaccessible. Maps or list information indicating the existing positions or addresses of all restricted blocks are recorded as encoded data or encrypted data in a specific area on the information recording medium in advance. An information recording medium characterized by: 11. The recording medium is logically formatted in advance so that an area excluding the non-recordable, non-reproducible or inaccessible restricted block becomes a substantial user area. The information recording medium according to any one of 1 to 10. 12. A user recording block capable of recording and reproducing independently of at least two blocks, and at least one block of the user recording block is a restricted block which cannot be recorded, reproduced, or inaccessible. An information recording medium having a recording / reproducing restriction is used in a computer system or a recording / reproducing apparatus having a processing function of performing recording / reproducing control so that an area excluding the restricted block becomes a substantial user area. Information recording and reproducing system. 13. A user recording block capable of recording and reproducing independently of at least two blocks, and at least one block of the user recording block is a restricted block which cannot be recorded, reproduced or accessed. Using an information recording medium having a recording / reproducing restriction, the coded data or the encrypted data held on the recording medium is read, and the read data is decrypted or decrypted to obtain the arrangement information of the restricted block. , Based on the obtained restricted block arrangement information, it has a processing function of performing at least one of recording / reproduction control or logical format so that all restricted blocks do not substantially become a user area. Information recording / playback system. 14. The information recording / reproducing system according to claim 12, wherein the restricted block is substantially excluded from the user area by registering the restricted block as a defect. 15. The information recording / reproducing system according to claim 12, wherein the restricted block is substantially excluded from the user area by registering the restricted block as an invisible file. 16. A defect management table recording area for recording at least a plurality of independently recordable and reproducible user recording blocks, a replacement block for replacing a defective user recording block, and a relationship between the defective block and the replacement block. An information recording medium having at least the replacement block, wherein the number of replacement blocks is smaller than the number of rewritable times of the recording medium. 17. A defect management table recording area for recording at least a plurality of independently recordable / reproducible user recording blocks, a replacement block for replacing a defective user recording block, and a relationship between the defective block and the replacement block. An information recording medium having at least the defect management table, in which a plurality of defective blocks and replacement blocks are recorded in advance, and the number of remaining blocks that can be registered in the defect management table is less than the number of rewritable times of the recording medium. An information recording medium characterized by the above. 18. The information recording medium according to claim 17, wherein the sum of the number of replacement blocks and the number of remaining blocks that can be registered in the defect management table is smaller than the number of rewritable times of the recording medium. 19. The method according to claim 17, wherein the number of replacement blocks and the number of remaining blocks that can be registered in the defect management table are each less than one third of the number of rewritable times of the recording medium. Information recording medium. 20. The information recording medium according to claim 1, wherein the total number of the restricted blocks on the information recording medium is larger than the total number of recording blocks that can be registered in the defect management table. . 21. At least a plurality of independently recordable and reproducible user recording blocks, replacement blocks for replacing defective user recording blocks, and a defect management table recording area for recording the relationship between defective blocks and replacement blocks. An information recording medium having at least the plurality of defective blocks and replacement blocks that have not been assigned to the defect management table in advance, and the number of registrable remaining blocks in the defect management table is calculated as the number of rewritable times of the recording medium. An information recording medium characterized by being less than 22. A block extending over at least one track of a boundary between the restricted block and the normal block on the information recording medium is registered in advance in the initial defect management table as a defective block. 10
The information recording medium according to any one.