JPH09293012A - Information processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an information processor which shares a file between respective operating systems regardless of a file control form by installing the plural operating systems without physically dividing a storage device. SOLUTION: The information processor executing storage in the storage device 10 of the plural operating systems with different file control forms is constituted in such a way that the storage device 10 installs the optionally specified first operating system 11 and also installs the other second operating system 12 as the system file of the first operating system 11, the whole data files are stored in the file control form of the first operating system 11 and the second operating system 12 is provided with a file system emulator 32 as against the file control form of the first operating system 11.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus whose basic operation is controlled by an operating system, and more particularly to an information processing apparatus which shares files with a plurality of operating systems having different file management formats.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an information processing apparatus using a computer, a basic operation is generally controlled by an operating system which is a basic program. Normally, one operating system is installed in one information processing apparatus, but there are cases in which a plurality of operating systems are installed according to the purpose of use of the system, usage environment, etc., and they are switched and used as necessary. . In such a case, since different operating systems have different file management formats, it is not possible to install multiple operating systems in the same area on the storage device. Therefore, you can install each operating system on a different storage device,
One storage device was physically installed and used in each of a plurality of areas created.

Further, when a plurality of operating systems are switched and used as described above, since the file management formats are different between the respective operating systems, the data managed by a predetermined operating system is transferred to another operating system. Not available above. So if you need to manage common data in each operating system,
In the management area of each operating system of the storage device,
It was necessary to store the same data in duplicate.

[0004]

As described above, in the conventional information processing apparatus, when a plurality of operating systems are switched and used, the file management formats are different between the operating systems. However, there is a drawback in that it requires a great deal of time and effort to install, because it has to be installed in different storage devices or installed in a plurality of areas created by physically dividing one storage device.

When one operating system is physically divided and each operating system is installed, the capacity of the operating system that can be used by one operating system is limited, and the operating system is divided once. After that, the allocation of the storage device capacity to each operating system cannot be changed unless it is divided again, so that there is a drawback that a flexible system design is difficult.

Further, as described above, since the file management format is different between each operating system,
If you need to manage common data in each operating system, you must store the same data in duplicate in the management area of each operating system.
There is a drawback that the capacity of the storage device is wasted and it takes a lot of time and effort to constantly maintain the commonality of all the data stored in each management area of each operating system.

The present invention solves the above-mentioned conventional drawbacks and enables a plurality of operating systems to be installed in one storage device without physically dividing the storage device. It is an object of the present invention to provide an information processing device that can use data stored under the control of the other operating system in another operating system.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an information processing apparatus for storing in a plurality of operating system storage devices having different file management formats, wherein the storage device is arbitrarily specified. Installing a first said operating system,
The other operating system is installed as a system file of the first operating system, and all data files are stored in the file management format of the first operating system.
The other operating system installed as a system file of the operating system is configured to have an emulation function for the file management format of the first operating system.

[0009] In another aspect, the storage device stores a common loader that selectively boots either the first operating system or the other operating system.

[0010] In still another preferred aspect, the other operating system installed as a system file of the first operating system includes a dedicated loader for booting an operating system each time, and the common loader is the When it is selected to start another operating system, the starting process is passed to the dedicated loader of the selected operating system.

According to another aspect of the present invention which achieves the above-mentioned object, in an information processing apparatus for storing in a plurality of operating system storage devices having different file management formats, the first area arbitrarily specified in the same area of the front storage device. An operating system installation unit that installs the operating system and installs another operating system having an emulation function for the file management format of the first operating system as a system file of the first operating system; Operating system startup control means for selectively booting either the operating system or the other operating system, and the system of the first operating system. Emulation of the other operating system when the other operating system installed as a system file is operating and the file stored in the file management format of the first operating system is accessed. An access control unit for accessing a file by using a function is provided.

[0012] In another aspect, the operating system installation means installs the first operating system and the other operating system, and specifies and registers a boot operating system that starts up when the information processing apparatus is booted. .

In still another aspect, when the operating system startup means does not register the startup operating system, the startup operating system is accepted by a command input from the user, and the specified operating system is accepted. Start up the system.

[0014]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the information processing apparatus of this embodiment. In addition, in this embodiment, in order to simplify the description, a case where two operating systems are installed in one storage device will be described as an example.

As shown in the figure, the information processing apparatus of this embodiment includes a storage device 10 in which an operating system is installed and an arithmetic processing unit 20 that accesses the storage device 10 and executes various processes. It should be noted that in the figure, only the characteristic configuration of the present embodiment is described, and the description of the other configurations is omitted.

The storage device 10 is usually realized by a disk device having a magnetic disk or the like as a storage medium, and has two operating systems installed therein. Less than,
The first operating system 11 and the second operating system 12 are referred to and distinguished from each other. When these operating systems are not particularly distinguished, they are referred to as operating systems 11 and 12. In addition, the storage device 10 uses the operating systems 11 and 12
It stores a common loader 13 for starting up. In this embodiment, the storage device 10 will be described as a magnetic disk device.

The first operating system 11 has n
The system files SF11 to SF1n are provided, and a header section 11a for managing the addresses of the system files SF11 to SF1n is provided.

The second operating system 12 is m
The system files SF21 to SF2m are provided, a header section 12a for managing the addresses of the system files SF21 to SF2m, and a dedicated loader 12b for starting up the second operating system 12. Also,
The second operating system 12 is provided with an emulation function for accessing data stored in the data management format of the first operating system 11.

The second operating system 12
Is stored in the storage device 10 as one of the system files of the first operating system 11. In the illustrated example, the k-th (1 ≦ k ≦ n) system file SF1
k is the second operating system 12.

The common loader 13 is a program for starting the operating systems 11 and 12,
It has a function of starting up the first operating system 11 and a function of selecting which of the first operating system 11 and the second operating system 12 is started up. Further, it has a function of holding the address of the dedicated loader 12b of the second operating system 12 and handing over the processing to the dedicated loader 12b when the selection to start the second operating system 12 is made.

Although not shown, the storage device 10 includes:
Various data are stored according to the processing content of the information processing apparatus. In this embodiment, all of this data is stored in the file management format of the first operating system 11.

The arithmetic processing unit 20 has an OS installation control means 21 for installing the operating systems 11 and 12 in the storage device 10 and an OS startup control for booting the operating systems 11 and 12 when the information processing device is started. Means 22 and backup memory 23, access control means 24 for accessing data under the control of operating systems 11 and 12, and ROM 25 storing a program for initial operation such as bootstrap.

The OS installation control means 21 is realized by a program-controlled CPU or the like, and stores the first operating system 11 and the second operating system 12 in the storage device 10. The operation of installing the operating systems 11 and 12 by the OS installation control means 21 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, the magnetic disk of the storage device 10 is initialized (step 201), and the system files SF11 to SF1n of the first operating system 11 are installed (step 202). Further, the header section 11a that manages the addresses of the installed system files SF11 to SF1n is generated and stored, and the common loader 13 is further stored.

Next, the second operating system 12
OS installation control means 2 when installing
First, the first allocates the area for storing the second operating system 12 on the magnetic disk of the storage device 10 (steps 203 and 204). Then, the second operating system 12 including the system files SF21 to SF2n, the header portion 12a, and the dedicated loader 12B is installed in the secured area (step 20).
5).

Next, a method for starting up the operating systems 11 and 12 when the system is started up is designated (step 206). Operating system 11,
The startup method of 12 is a method specified by the user when the system is booted by menu selection, or a preset method for automatically starting either the first operating system 11 or the second operating system 12. There is a way to keep it. When the method of presetting the boot operating system is selected, the boot operating system is designated and registered in the backup memory 23 (steps 207 and 208).

By the above procedure, the installation of the operating systems 11 and 1102 in the storage device 10 is completed. As described above, in the present embodiment, two types of operating systems 11 and 12 are installed in one storage device, but the second operating system 12 is installed as a system file of the first operating system 11, so the storage device is There is no need to physically divide 10.

The OS startup control means 22 is realized by a program-controlled CPU or the like, and boots one of the operating systems 11 and 12 according to the common loader 13 stored in the storage device 10 when the information processing device is started up. increase. Referring to the flowchart of FIG. 3, the operating system 1 by the OS startup control means 22
The start-up operation of 1 and 12 will be described.

When the information processing apparatus is turned on (step 301), the hardware is diagnosed by the control of the program stored in the ROM 25 as an initial operation (step 302), and then the common loader of the storage device 10 is operated. 13 is read and loaded into the main memory of the arithmetic processing unit 20 (step 303).

The OS startup control means 22 first checks the contents stored in the backup memory 23 under the control of the common loader 13 loaded in the main memory (step 304). Where operating system 1
As the startup method of 1 and 12, menu startup and
It is determined which one of the set automatic startup of the boot operating system is designated (step 3).
05).

When the automatic startup is designated, it is next determined which of the first operating system 11 and the second operating system 12 is designated as the boot operating system (step 306). Then, the first operating system 11
Is specified as the boot operating system, the first operating system 11 is started up by the control of the common loader 13 (step 30).
7).

On the other hand, the second operating system 12
Is designated as the boot operating system, the OS startup control means 22 determines that the dedicated loader 1 of the second operating system 12 of the common loader 13
The dedicated loader 12b is loaded into the main memory by referring to the address of 2b. After that, the dedicated loader 1
The second operating system 12 is started under the control of 2b (step 308).

When menu boot is specified as the boot method of the operating systems 11 and 12, the OS boot control means 22 is controlled by the common loader 13 to boot the operating system 11 to a display device (not shown). A menu display for selecting 12 is displayed (steps 305 and 309). When the user specifies the operating system 11, 12 to be booted according to the menu display, the OS boot control means 22 continues to boot the designated operating system 11, 12 (step 310). At this time, the first operating system 1
If 1 is selected, the first operating system 11 is started under the control of the common loader 13, and the second operating system 11 is started.
If the operating system 12 is selected, after loading the dedicated loader 12b, the second operating system 12 is started up under the control of the dedicated loader 12b.

The startup of the operating systems 11 and 12 is completed by the above procedure. As described above,
In the present embodiment, the operating systems 11 and 12 installed in the storage device 10 can be booted arbitrarily without any inferiority. That is, the second operating system 12 installed as a system file of the first operating system 11
Also in the case of starting up, it is not necessary to go through a procedure with many man-hours, such as first starting up the first operating system 11 and then calling the second operating system 12 from the first operating system 11 to start up.

The access control means 24 is realized by a program-controlled CPU or the like, and accesses the data files stored in the storage device 10 under the control of operating operating systems 11 and 12. In the present embodiment, as described above, all data is stored in the storage device 1 in the file management format of the first operating system 11.
Store to 0. Therefore, when the first operating system 11 is operating, the data file can be accessed as it is, but in order to access the data file under the control of the second operating system 12, emulation in the file management format is required.

FIG. 4 shows the structure of the main memory when the second operating system 12 is started up. As shown, various drivers 30 are mounted on the main memory, which is hardware, and the second operating system 12 is mounted thereon. The application program runs on the second operating system 12. The driver 30 includes a file access driver 31 for accessing a file. Then, on the file access driver 31, the file system emulator 3
2 works.

The operation of accessing the file by the access control means 24 when the second operating system 12 is operating will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, when an application program requests access to a file (step 50).
1), the access control means 24 checks whether the access request is for the management area of the first operating system 11.

The first operating system 1
If it is for one management area, first, an access command is issued to the file system emulator 32 (steps 502 and 503). The file system emulator 32 converts the access request based on the file name into an access request based on the address of the file,
An access command is issued to the file access driver 31 (step 504). Then, the file access driver 31 accesses the file (step 505). As mentioned above, all access to the data file corresponds to this case.

On the other hand, when the access request issued from the application program is not for the management area of the first operating system 11, that is, for the management area of the second operating system 12, the access command is emulated. The access command is issued as it is to the file access driver 31 without applying the rate (steps 502, 50).
6) The file access driver 31 accesses the file (step 507).

With the above procedure, the access operation to the file by the access control means 24 when the second operating system 12 is operating is completed. As described above, in the present embodiment, it is possible to access the data file without boundaries regardless of the operating systems 11 and 12 operating.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to the preferred embodiments, the present invention is not necessarily limited to the above embodiments. For example, in the present embodiment, the operating system startup method can be selected, but this is not an indispensable requirement, and it is possible to perform only automatic startup of a preset operating system, or conversely menu startup. It can be raised only.

In this embodiment, the case of installing two types of operating systems in the storage device has been described, but there is no problem in installing three or more types of operating systems.

[0045]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Since a plurality of operating systems having different file management formats can be installed in one storage device without physically dividing the storage device, there is an effect that the labor required for installation can be significantly reduced.

Since the storage device is not divided, the capacity of the storage device that can be used by one operating system increases, and there is no inconvenience that the allocation of the storage device capacity to each operating system cannot be changed, and the system design is flexible. Can be done easily.

Further, since data files stored in accordance with the file management format of one operating system can be accessed from any installed operating system without boundaries, the data can be stored in the management area of each operating system. It is not necessary to store the same data redundantly, it is possible to prevent the waste of the capacity of the storage device, and to always maintain the commonality of all the data stored in each management area of each operating system. It is possible to avoid the inconvenience of requiring a lot of trouble.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an information processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation of installing an operating system according to this embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a startup operation of the operating system according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing a structure of a main memory when the second operating system according to the present embodiment is started up.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a file access operation according to the present embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 Storage Device 11 First Operating System 12 Second Operating System 13 Common Loader 20 Arithmetic Processing Device 21 OS Installation Control Means 22 OS Startup Control Means 23 Backup Memory 24 Access Control Means SF11 to SF1n, SF21 to SF2n System Files

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. An information processing apparatus for storing in a plurality of operating system storage devices having different file management formats, wherein the storage device installs the arbitrarily specified first operating system, and other operating systems. Is installed as a system file of the first operating system, all data files are stored in a file management format of the first operating system, and the other operating system installed as a system file of the first operating system. An information processing apparatus, wherein the system has an emulation function for the file management format of the first operating system. 2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the storage device stores a common loader that selectively boots either the first operating system or the other operating system. . 3. The other operating system installed as a system file of the first operating system includes a dedicated loader for booting an operating system each time, and the common loader installs the other operating system. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein, when the start-up is selected, the start-up process is passed to the dedicated loader of the selected operating system. 4. An information processing apparatus for storing in a plurality of operating system storage devices having different file management formats, wherein the arbitrarily specified first operating system is installed in the same area of the previous storage device,
Operating system installation means for installing another operating system having an emulation function for the file management format of the first operating system as a system file of the first operating system; and the first operating system or the other operating system. The operating system startup control means for selectively booting one of the systems and the other operating system installed as a system file of the first operating system are operating, When accessing files stored in the file management format of the operating system, emulation of other operating systems The information processing apparatus characterized by comprising an access control means for accessing a file using ® should be. 5. The operating system installation means installs the first operating system and the other operating system, and specifies and registers a boot operating system that starts up when the information processing apparatus is booted. The information processing device according to claim 4. 6. The operating system start-up means, when the starting operating system is not registered, accepts a specification of the starting operating system by a command input from a user, and starts the specified operating system. The information processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein: