Abstract:
A method to partition a hard disc drive which conceals part of a storage region in a hard disc drive from the outside to thereby heighten a security of data, and a hard disc drive configured for the HDD partitioning method. The hard disc drive partitioning method includes receiving a section table having information on the number, passwords, starting positions, lengths, and activation or non-activation of sections each having a master boot record and file allocation information; and storing the section table in the storage region which may be accessed only by the hard disc drive, in which the hard disc drive may access only the activated section among the sections. Here, the hard disc drive allows only activated section to be accessed among the sections.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION  
       [0001]     This application claims the priority of Korean Patent Application No. 2004-10419, filed on Feb. 17, 2004, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.  
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002]     1. Field of the Invention  
         [0003]     The present invention relates to a method of partitioning a hard disc drive (HDD), and more particularly, to a method of partitioning a hard disc drive which conceals part of a storage region in a hard disc drive from the outside to thereby heighten a security level of data stored therein, and a hard disc drive that is configured to the HDD partitioning method.  
         [0004]     2. Description of the Related Art  
         [0005]     A hard disc drive (HDD) is a recording apparatus that is used to store information therein. Information is usually recorded on one or more concentric tracks that are located on any one surface of a magnetic recording disc. The magnetic recording disc is rotatably mounted on a spindle motor. A read/write unit, mounted on an actuator arm, that is rotated by a voice coil motor accesses information. The voice coil motor is excited by a current and then rotates an actuator. The rotation of the actuator causes a read/write head to move. The read/write head detects a change in a magnetic field generated from the surface of the disc and reads information recorded on the surface of the disc. Also, in order to write information on data tracks, current is supplied to the read/write head. Current generates a magnetic field and the generated magnetic field magnetizes the surface of the disc.  
         [0006]     A partition table (PT) administers substantially all of the data areas of the hard disc drive. The PT exists in a master boot record (MBR) and a file allocation table (FAT) exists in each of the partitions of the hard disc drive.  
         [0007]     A logical block address (LBA) represents a physical position within the hard disc drive using a linear addressing method, in which one block is usually composed of 512 bytes. LBA 0 is the first appearing address, and physically appears in a position where the partition table is located. The LBA 0 is also called a master boot record (MBR). The partition table includes partitioning information of the hard disc drive. An allocation table administers each of the partition areas that are partitioned by the partition table. Accordingly, the hard disc drive may be partitioned logically.  
         [0008]     Meanwhile, the term “partition” means that a physical disc is partitioned into some areas so that the physical disc may be easily administrated. In the case that there are various operating systems, each of several specific file systems may be independently maintained in a specific area. As a result, although a partition may be lost, the other partition areas may be protected from a similar loss at a high probability.  
         [0009]     However, since each of the partition areas is exposed in the conventional hard disc drive, viruses, hacking, user&#39;s mistakes, incorrect software operations, etc., may damage the partition areas.  
         [0010]     Here, the exposed partition areas mean that the partition areas of the hard disc drive may be accessed without a special restriction in the hard disc drive.  
         [0011]     If a single hard disc drive is partitioned into two partition areas, each partition area is recognized into a drive C or D, for example. Here, since two partition areas are exposed without a special protecting apparatus, searching the two areas using directory commands in a host computer is possible. Even though one attribute of the two areas is set as a read-disable or a write-disable, the two areas may be hacked by malicious users. That is, the conventional hard disc drive has a problem in view of security since the hard disc drive is exposed to potential hazard.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0012]     The present invention provides a method of partitioning a hard disc drive in which the hard disc drive is partitioned into one or more independent sections which belong to a more generic concept than a concept of partitions, and section partition information is stored in an area that cannot be accessed by a host computer.  
         [0013]     The present invention also provides a hard disc drive that is configured for the above method of partitioning a hard disc drive.  
         [0014]     According to an aspect of the present invention, a method of partitioning a storage region of a hard disc drive comprises receiving a section table having information on the number, passwords, starting positions, lengths, and activation or non-activation of sections each having a master boot record and file allocation information; and storing the section table in the storage region which may be accessed only by the hard disc drive, in which the hard disc drive may access only the activated section among the sections.  
         [0015]     Here, the partitioning method further comprises outputting the section table in response to a section table access command accompanying the same password as that contained in the section table.  
         [0016]     According to another aspect of the present invention, a hard disc drive comprises a storage region which is partitioned into sections each having a master boot record and file allocation information, and a maintenance cylinder storing a section table having information on the number, passwords, starting positions, lengths, and activation or non-activation of sections each having a master boot record and file allocation, in which the section table having information on the number, passwords, starting positions, lengths, and activation or non-activation of sections is received to be stored in the maintenance cylinder, in which only the activated section among the sections may be accessed.  
         [0017]     Additional and/or other aspects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0018]     These and/or other aspects and advantages of the invention will become apparent and more readily appreciated from the following description of the embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings of which:  
         [0019]      FIG. 1  shows an example of a hard disc drive;  
         [0020]      FIG. 2  is a block diagram showing an electrical system that controls the hard disc drive  10  shown in  FIG. 1 ;  
         [0021]      FIG. 3  is a diagram to explain a concept of a method of partitioning a hard disc drive according to the present invention;  
         [0022]      FIG. 4  is a flowchart view to explain a method of setting a section in a method of partitioning a hard disc drive according to the present invention;  
         [0023]      FIG. 5  is a flowchart view to explain a method of selecting a section in a method of partitioning a hard disc drive according to the present invention; and  
         [0024]      FIG. 6  is a flowchart view to explain a file access operation of a hard disc drive partitioned by a hard disc drive partitioning method according to the present invention. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0025]     Reference will now be made in detail to the embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to the like elements throughout. The embodiments are described below to explain the present invention by referring to the figures.  
         [0026]      FIG. 1  shows an example of a hard disc drive. Referring to  FIG. 1 , a hard disc drive  10  includes a disc  12  that is rotated by a spindle motor  14  and a head  16  that is adjacent to the surface of the disc  12  to gain access to the disc  12 .  
         [0027]     The spindle motor  14  rotates the disc  12 . The head  16  magnetizes and detects a magnetic field of the disc  12  in order to record information on the disc  12  or read information recorded on the disc  12 . Only a single head  16  is shown in  FIG. 1 , but in an alternate embodiment, a write head to magnetize the disc  12  and a read head to detect a magnetic field of the disc  12  may be integrally formed into a single read/write head.  
         [0028]     The head  16  may be integrated with a slider  20 . The slider  20  forms an air bearing between the head  16  and the surface  18  of the disc  12 . Meanwhile, the slider  20  may be integrated with a head gimbal assembly (HGA)  22 . The HGA  22  is attached to an actuator arm  24  including a voice coil  26 .  
         [0029]     The voice coil  26  constitutes a voice coil motor (VCM)  30  together with a magnet assembly  28 . When current is supplied to the voice coil  26 , torque is generated in order to cause the actuator arm  24  to rotate with respect to a bearing assembly  32 . The head  16  moves across the surface  18  of the disc  12  according to the rotation of the actuator arm  24 .  
         [0030]     Information is recorded on annular tracks  34  of the disc  12 . Each of the tracks  34  includes a number of sectors. Each sector includes a user data region and a servo data region. A gray code identifying sectors and tracks or cylinders and a servo burst signal of a head position control are recorded in the servo data region.  
         [0031]      FIG. 2  is a block diagram showing an electrical system to control the hard disc drive  10  shown in  FIG. 1 . The electrical system shown in  FIG. 2  includes a read/write (R/W) channel circuit  44  and a controller  42  that is electrically connected with the head  16  by a pre-amplifier circuit  46 . A digital signal processor (DSP), a microprocessor, a micro-controller and the like may be used as the controller  42 . The controller  42  sends a control signal to the R/W channel circuit  44  in order to read information from the disc  12  or write information on the disc  12 .  
         [0032]     Information is transferred between the R/W channel circuit  44  and a host interface circuit  46 . The host interface circuit  46  includes a control circuit (not shown) that controls the hard disc drive  10  to be interfaced with a host system (not shown) such as a personal computer, and a buffer memory (not shown) that buffers information transferred between the hard disc drive  10  and the host system (not shown).  
         [0033]     The controller  42  is also connected to a VCM drive  48  that supplies driving current to drive a voice coil  26 . The controller  42  sends a control signal to the VCM drive  48  to control movement of the head  16 .  
         [0034]     The controller  42  is connected to a non-volatile memory such as a ROM or a flash memory device  50 , and a RAM device  52 . The memory devices  50  and  52  include commands and data that are used to allow the controller  42  to perform a software routine.  
         [0035]      FIG. 3  is a schematic diagram to explain a concept of a method of partitioning a hard disc drive according to the present invention.  
         [0036]     Referring to  FIG. 3 , a storage region  300  in the hard disc drive is partitioned into two mutually independent sections  302  and  304 . Each of the sections  302  and  304  may be accessed externally only if the section  302  or  304  is activated. Each of the sections  302  and  304  may be partitioned into a plurality of partitions according to a typical partitioning method. In  FIG. 3 , a first section  302  and a second section  304  are partitioned into three partitions, respectively.  
         [0037]     Master boot records  306  and  308  having partition information of each section are located in first physical sectors of the respective sections  302  and  304 .  
         [0038]     A section table  310  having section partition information is administered by the hard disc drive. That is, the section table  310  is stored in a region that cannot be accessed externally, for example, a maintenance cylinder (M/C) in the hard disc drive. The hard disc drive administers partitioning and activation of the sections in response to an external section table access command. Here, the hard disc drive requests a password in order to substantially guarantee security. Together with the section table access command, an externally supplied password is compared with the password stored in the section table. Whether or not partitioning and activation of the sections will be performed is determined according to a result of the comparison.  
         [0039]     The following Table 1 illustrates contents of the section table.  
                               TABLE 1                                   Byte   F/V   Description                           0-7   F   SECTION Table specifier: “SECTABLE”           8-9   F   SECTION Table revision           10-11   V   Number of section           12-13   V   Current selected section           14-17   V   Password           18-19   V   Enable or Disable           20-31   R   Reserved           32-37   V   SECTION 0 START LBA           38-43   V   SECTION 0 LBA NUMBER           44-49   V   SECTION 1 START LBA           50-55   V   SECTION 1 LBA NUMBER           56-61   V   SECTION 2 START LBA           62-67   V   SECTION 2 LBA NUMBER           —   —   —           500-505   V   SECTION 39 START LBA           506-511   V   SECTION 39 LBA NUMBER                      
 
         [0040]     In Table 1, a character “F” means that the contents of a corresponding byte is fixed and cannot be altered, a character “V” means that the contents of a corresponding byte is variable and can be altered, and a character “R” means that the contents of a corresponding byte is reserved and must be zero.  
         [0041]     In the case of a drive of 149.06 GB (Logical Block Address (LBA): 312, 618, 096), if it is set that SECTION 0 START LBA becomes 0, LBA NUMBER becomes 99,999,999, SECTION 1 START LBA becomes 100,000,000, and LBA NUMBER becomes 212,618,096, SECTION 0 has a capacity of 47.68 GB, and SECTION 1 has a capacity of 101.38 GB.  
         [0042]     Meanwhile, in the case that SECTION 0 is activated, the hard disc drive is recognized to have only a capacity of 47.68 GB when viewed from a host computer. In the case that SECTION 1 is activated, the hard disc drive is recognized to have a capacity of 101.38 GB.  
         [0043]     In the case that a section is added, corrected, deleted, or activated externally from the hard disc drive, a section table access command is used.  
         [0044]     In order to perform a section table access, a get section table command and a set section table command are prepared. In the present invention, a smart command that is a vendor unique command is used among ATA mandatory commands.  
         [0045]     The smart command whose command code is B0h among the ATA mandatory commands uses a value of a feature register as a subcommand, is a command for the hard disc drive to perform other operations according to the feature register value.  
         [0046]     Meanwhile, a vendor may use a region where a value of a feature register is between E0h and FFh (subcommands). In the present invention, part of the region is used. The region is presented as a convenient example for explanation. The region may be altered into other regions as desired.  
         [0047]     The following Table shows an example of a section table access command presented in the present invention.  
                           TABLE 2                                   Value   Command                           E0h   GET SECTION TABLE           E1h   SET SECTION TABLE                      
 
         [0048]     The following Table 3 shows a format of a get section table command.  
                                                                                                         TABLE 3                           Register   7   6   5   4   3   2   1   0            Features   E0h       Sector Count   PASSWORD [7:0]       Sector Number   PASSWORD [15:8]       Cylinder Low   PASSWORD [23:16]       Cylinder High   PASSWORD [31:24]            Device/Head   obs   na   na   DEV   na   na   na   na            Command   B0h                  
 
         [0049]     ATA commands are defined as command codes and variables accompanying the variables. The variables are transferred via a feature register, a sector count register, a sector number register, a cylinder low register, a cylinder high register, and a device/head register.  
         [0050]     Referring to Table 3, the get section table command is a subcommand of a smart command where a command code is E0h. The code of the subcommand is E0h. The password performs a get section table command, which is initially set to zero. DEV represents a selected device, that is, a master HDD (Hard Disc Drive) and a slave HDD.  
         [0051]     The following Table 4 illustrates a format of a set section table command.  
                                                                                                         TABLE 4                           Register   7   6   5   4   3   2   1   0            Features   E1h       Sector Count   PASSWORD [7:0]       Sector Number   PASSWORD [15:8]       Cylinder Low   PASSWORD [23:16]       Cylinder High   PASSWORD [31:24]            Device/Head   Obs   na   na   DEV   na   na   na   Na            Command   B0h                  
 
         [0052]     Referring to Table 4, the set section table command is a subcommand of a smart command where a command code is E0h. The code of the subcommand is E1h. The password performs a set section table command, which is initially set to zero. DEV represents a selected device, that is, a master HDD (Hard Disc Drive) and a slave HDD.  
         [0053]     The set section table command is used when a section table is set in the hard disc drive. In other words, if a set section table command is not performed, the hard disc drive is accessed by a general read/write command as in the conventional art. Once a section table is set by the set section table command, only the activated section in the hard disc drive may be accessed by a general read/write command. A get section table command is used to correct the activated section, to thereby obtain a section table as shown in Table 1, and then to add/correct/delete a section. Then, when a set section table command is used again, an altered section table is set.  
         [0054]      FIG. 4  is a flowchart view to explain a method of setting a section in a method of partitioning a hard disc drive according to the present invention.  
         [0055]     First, a get section table command is used to obtain a current section table. If a password is set in advance, the password should be input together with the get section table command ( 402 ).  
         [0056]     Referring to Table 2, a desired portion of the current section table is corrected by a process involving adding/correcting/deleting a section ( 404 ).  
         [0057]     A set section table command is used to set an altered section table. If a password is set in advance, the password should be input together with the set section table command ( 406 ). Then, the hard disc drive replaces an existing section table by a new section table.  
         [0058]     When the password is to be altered, a new password is set in byte offsets  14 - 17  at the time of performing a set section table command.  
         [0059]     After performing the set section table command, power for a host system is reset, to thereby apply an altered section table in the hard disc drive ( 408 ).  
         [0060]      FIG. 5  is a flowchart view to explain a method of selecting a section in a method of partitioning a hard disc drive according to the present invention.  
         [0061]     First, a get section table command is used to obtain a current section table. If a password is set in advance, the password should be input together with the get section table command ( 502 ).  
         [0062]     Referring to Table 2, a current section item of the current section table is altered ( 504 ).  
         [0063]     A set section table command is used to set an altered section table. If a password is set in advance, the password should be input together with the set section table command ( 506 ).  
         [0064]     After performing the set section table command, power for the host system is reset, to thereby apply an altered section table in the hard disc drive ( 508 ).  
         [0065]      FIG. 6  is a flowchart view to explain a file access operation of a hard disc drive partitioned by a hard disc drive partitioning method according to the present invention.  
         [0066]     When a read/write command is applied in the host computer ( 602 ), the hard disc drive is recognized as having a quantity of an activated section with reference to a section table  310  ( 604 ).  
         [0067]     Then, a position of a corresponding file is obtained with reference to a partition table of an activated section and a file allocation table (FAT) ( 606 ). Here, a physical position of a corresponding file is obtained with reference to a logical block address (LBA) where a master boot record (MBR) of an activated section is located and position information recorded on a FAT of a corresponding section.  
         [0068]     A corresponding file is then read/written ( 608 ).  
         [0069]     As may be seen from  FIG. 6 , only an activated section is accessed by a general read/write command. When viewed from the outside of the hard disc drive, that a corresponding hard disc drive has a capacity as large as that of only the activated section may be recognized.  
         [0070]     Thus, although virus, hacking, user&#39;s mistakes, an incorrect software operation and the like occur, sections may be protected.  
         [0071]     As is described above, in a method of partitioning a hard disc drive according to the present invention, a storage region in the hard disc drive is partitioned into sections that are more generic than conventional partitions, and since activated sections are not externally exposed, heightening security of the activated sections is possible.  
         [0072]     Although a few embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it would be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes might be made in these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the invention, the scope of which is defined in the claims and their equivalents.