Method and apparatus for controlling a magnetic disk storage device and a disk array system

摘要

A method and a system prevent starting-up problems in plural magnetic disk storage devices included in a disk array system during restart following halt after long term operation. The disk array system includes a microprocessor unit (MPU) which controls the magnetic disk storage devices, a control memory, a parity calculator, and a cache memory. The control memory contains an operation time control table in which a tolerable continuous operation time Ti and a halt time Ts are stored. Each of the magnetic disk storage devices is intentionally stopped individually for the halt time Ts at time intervals of the tolerable continuous operation time Ti. A request for reading data from a magnetic disk storage device under halt is responded to by using a data recovery function, while a request for writing data to a magnetic disk storage device under halt is responded to by writing data to an alternate spare magnetic disk storage device or memory. <IMAGE>