Abstract: An improved optical disk data storage system method are disclosed. In an optical disk storage system, a data compression device is interposed between a host computer and an optical disk controller to permit data storage and retrieval operations on an optical disk to occur at a faster rate than would otherwise be possible. Data is compressed when it is received by the optical disk controller and is decompressed before it is sent to the host computer. In this way data may be efficiently stored on an optical disk while providing plug compatibility with a host computer designed to store and retrieve data on a magnetic media data storage device.

Abstract: An optical disk data storage system and method are disclosed. In a data storage or "write" operation, up to a fixed number of variable-length records are written to the optical disk in close proximity to an embedded directory, which stores record length information describing the records associated therewith. A high-level directory is constructed providing a list of addresses for the embedded directories. The embedded directories comprise up to a fixed maximum number of entries each indicating the length in bytes of a corresponding record. In a data retrieval or "read" operation, the high-level directory is first accessed to determine the addresses for the embedded directories, with reference to positional information permanently written to the disk. Bytes of data are then counted in accordance with the record length stored by the embedded directory to access the record sought by the host computer.

Abstract: An Optical Disk Storage system and method for the storage of magnetic tape records including an optical disk and a system for writing variable-length records to the disk with a plurality of embedded directories in close proximity to a plurality of records associated therewith. A high-level directory is constructed providing a list of addresses for the embedded directories. The embedded directories comprise a fixed maximum number of entries each indicating the length of a corresponding record. In a read operation, the high-level directory is accessed first to provide addresses for the embedded directories, with reference to positional information permanently written to the disk. Bytes of data are then counted in accordance with the stored record length information to access a record of interest. In this way, varying-length records can be efficiently stored on an optical disk divided into fixed-length data blocks.