OD-A017-02

TOSHIBA DVD-RAM SD-W1111

‘99/06/26 Version 1.0

14. Notes on data guarantee

14.1 Disappearance of data in buffer in a write cache operation

In a write cache operation, before data are actually written to a disc, a status response to the WRITE command or WRITE & VERIFY command is sent. If the power supply is switched off immediately after the status response, there is a possibility that the data in the buffer will disappear before being written to the disc. To avoid this problem, execute FLUSH CACHE command before switching off the power supply.

Always execute FLUSH CACHE command before switching off the power supply, to avoid any risk of disappearance of data in buffer.

14.2 Error report in a write cache operation

When an error which cannot be recovered before all the data is received and written in the buffer and a status response to the command is sent in the write cache operation, the error is reported as 71H in REQUEST SENSE DATA. This shows that the error occurred on the last WRITE command or WRITE & VERIFY command.

14.3 Automatic sector replacement at a write operation

When data can not be written to the disc normally due an unrecoverable error, such as ID NOT FOUND, the drive replaces the sector by sector replacement processing. The drive prevents data from being lost by this operation as much as possible. Because automatic sector replacement processing is executed after write retry ends in an error, a time of between 7 to 15 seconds is needed. Therefore, it is recommended that the time-out to the command generating access to the disc is set at 20 seconds or more. In a write cache operation, when automatic sector replacement processing is done after a status response to the command is send, execution of the following command can be made to wait. However, when the following command is a WRITE command or WRITE & VERIFY command, the first data transfer of one block is executed without waiting, to prevent a time-out of the host.

14.4 Verification of a block address

When the command is received, a drive calculates block addresses where the data are written or read, with the start address and length specified by the command, and verifies whether the block addresses contain a block address which does not exist. If such a block address exists is founded, the drive does not record nor read, and reports on the error to the command at once.

14.5 Error generation in Read Modify Write operation

If, in a WRITE command and WRITE &VERIFY command, a start address number is not other than

*****0H or a block length is other than *16 x (integer)* though the start address number is *****0H,

the drive reads all data in an ECC block which contain the specified address once, and replaces the data in the ECC block by the data of the specified address. This chain of operations is called "Read Modify Write Operation". In "Read Modify Write Operation", in WRITE command and WRITE&VERIFY command, an error occurs when the data of the ECC block cannot be read for some reasons.

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Product Specification

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Toshiba SD-W1111 Disappearance of data in buffer in a write cache operation, Error report in a write cache operation