Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 6
Claim 1
Independent Claim
71 words
A method of operating an optical disk drive apparatus including a controller (10) with a microprocessor (15) and working memory (17), comprising setting a threshold of optical disk spare sector consumption and storing the threshold in the working memory (17), determining spare sector usage and storing the usage in the working memory, and comparing spare sector usage to the threshold, and if the threshold is exceeded, requesting a disk cleaning operation.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
101 words
A method according to claim 1, including, at the time of an initial load into the drive apparatus, formatting all user area sectors on the disk and storing the address of all sectors found defective in a primary defect list (PDL) located on the disk, during subsequent use of the disk, storing the address of all sectors found defective during use in a secondary defect list (SDL) located on the disk, and, after a disk cleaning operation, upon reinsertion of a cleaned disk into the drive, inspecting the SDL and reformatting all sectors therein to determine if they are now reusable.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
26 words
A method according to claim 2, including, for those sectors identified as reusable, reclaiming the reusable sectors by adding them to the available spare sector area.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
55 words
A method according to claim 2, including, for those sectors identified as reusable, reclaiming each reusable sector by writing that data originally intended for it from the assigned spare sector where the data has been located and, if successful, updating the SDL list and adding the assigned spare sector to the available spare sector area.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
50 words
A method according to claim 2, including, for those sectors identified as reusable, reclaiming each reusable sector by restoring them to the user area for further write operations and when successfully written, deleting the sector from the SDL and adding the associated spare sector to the available spare sector area.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
61 words
A method according to claim 2, 3, 4 or 5, wherein the PDL is inspected to identify all sectors in the SDL adjacent to sectors in the PDL, thereupon preparing a modified SDL in working memory in which the adjacent sectors are removed from the SDL, thereupon reformatting all sectors in the modified SDL to determine if they are now reusable.