JP2003249030A - Information recording / reproducing device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [PROBLEMS] To grasp the quality of a spare area in advance before receiving a data recording or reproduction request from the outside, and prevent a continuous spare processing sequence due to a defect in the spare area. A controller reproduces an unused area of an SA area of an optical disc in the background when a recording or reproduction command is not issued from a host computer for a certain period of time. The defect address of the defect area is registered as a recording prohibited area. After the registration of the recording prohibited area in the unused area in the replacement area is completed, when performing data replacement or recording based on a request from the host computer and performing the replacement process, the recording prohibited area registered in the replacement management table is used. Use other normal areas without using them.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a CD-R / RW.
The present invention relates to an information recording / reproducing device such as a drive device and a DVD drive device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an optical disc device which is an information recording / reproducing device, a defect at the time of manufacturing the optical disc (hereinafter referred to as "congenital defect") and a defect due to deterioration of the optical disc due to repeated scratches and recording / erasing (hereinafter referred to as "acquired defect""Defect")
In some cases, a defect management system has been introduced in order to ensure the reliability of recorded data even when a problem such as the above occurs. In addition to the data area (Data Area: DA), the spare area (Spare Area: SA) of the spare area is prepared on the optical disk, and the spare area is used for replacement of the defective area. Usually, there are one or a plurality of spare areas and data areas, and some standards have a plurality of alternating spare areas and data areas on an optical disc. Further, a replacement management table for separately managing the defect information of the optical disc and the replacement information of all the spare areas is provided separately.

In such an optical disk apparatus, when a data recording request is made from the host computer, first, the replacement management table is referred to, and whether or not a defective area exists in the recording range requested by the host computer of the optical disk. Find out. Then, when the request is for recording in the range including the defective area, the same data as the data recorded in the defective area is replaced and recorded in the spare area as the replacement area, and the defective address information of the defective area and the replacement area are replaced. The destination address information (replacement information) is registered in the replacement management table.

On the other hand, when a reproduction request is made from the host computer to the optical disc on which the data is recorded as described above, first, the replacement management table is referred to, and the replacement destination address replaced in the data range to be reproduced. If the replacement destination address information is included, the data is reproduced from the spare area of the replacement destination address information corresponding to the defective address information of the data area. It is designed to transfer to the host computer.

In the above replacement processing, if an acquired defect occurs during recording in the spare area and the replacement processing continues, another address in the spare area is replaced again. For example, if the optical disc is scratched or a burst error occurs due to an error due to deterioration of the optical disc, and the entire area of the spare area is an acquired defective address, etc. Even if the address is shifted and recorded, a recording / reproducing error may occur successively, and continuous replacement may occur. As described above, if the acquired defect exists in the spare area, the recording performance may be deteriorated.

Therefore, at the time of recording or reproducing data, a sector in which the address information of each sector recorded on the optical disk cannot be read is regarded as a defective sector, and when three or more defective sectors are consecutive, the consecutive defects are detected. An information recording / reproducing apparatus in which sectors are to be replaced (for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-212058)
000-090585) has been proposed.

[0007]

However, since the conventional information recording / reproducing apparatus checks the quality of the sector on the optical disk only when a recording or reproducing request is made from the host computer, the spare area is previously set. However, there is a problem in that the quality of the data cannot be grasped, a continuous replacement processing sequence occurs due to a defect in the replacement area, and the performance of the recording is deteriorated due to unnecessary recording processing. The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and the quality of the spare area is grasped in advance before a data recording or reproducing request from the outside, and a continuous spare processing sequence due to a defect in the spare area. The purpose is to prevent.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention records or reproduces information in a predetermined recording unit on a recording medium having one or a plurality of replacement areas in the information recording area. When a defective area is detected at the time of recording or reproducing, in the information recording / reproducing apparatus having means for substituting the information of the defective area with the replacement area, an instruction to record or reproduce information on the recording medium is not given from the outside. In the meantime, the unused area of the spare area of the recording medium is reproduced,
A recording-prohibited area registration means for registering the defective area found by the reproduction as a recording-prohibited area when the replacement process is performed is provided.

Further, when the ratio of the defective areas in the replacement area exceeds a predetermined ratio for each of the one or more replacement areas, the replacement area is registered in the recording prohibition area as the recording prohibition area. It is advisable to provide a means for doing so.
Further, when the ratio of defective areas in the one or more replacement areas exceeds a predetermined ratio, all unused areas of the replacement areas of the recording medium are registered in the recording prohibited area registration means as recording prohibited areas. Means should be provided.

[0010]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a system configuration including a CD-R / RW drive device and a host computer according to an embodiment of the present invention. The CD-R / RW drive device 1 includes an optical disc 13
A spindle motor 2 for rotating the optical disc and an optical pickup 4 for irradiating the optical disc 13 with laser light are provided. The rotation control system unit 3 controls the rotation of the spindle motor 2, and the optical pickup control system unit 8 controls the optical pickup 4.

The coarse movement motor 5 is a motor for moving the optical pickup 4 in the radial direction of the optical disk 13, and the coarse movement motor control system section 6 controls the coarse movement motor 5.
The signal processing system unit 7 also processes signals from the optical pickup 4 and transmits / receives data for recording on the optical disc 13. The controller 9 controls the entire apparatus, and the non-volatile memory 11 stores a program for moving the controller 9. In addition to this, the disk ID of the optical disk 13 and the start of a predetermined position of the optical disk 13 (Start). ) This is an area for storing address information, end (End) address information, etc., and the buffer memory 10 is an area for temporarily storing data for reproduction and recording.

That is, the CD-R / RW drive device 1 records or reproduces information in a predetermined recording unit on a recording medium having one or a plurality of replacement areas in the information recording area, and records or reproduces the information. The controller 9 is an information recording / reproducing apparatus including means for substituting the information of the defective area with the replacement area when a defective area is detected during reproduction.
Is a recording-prohibited area when the unused area of the replacement area of the recording medium is reproduced while an information recording or reproduction command for the recording medium is not instructed from the outside, and the defective area found by the reproduction is replaced. A recording prohibited area registering means for registering the replacement area and a means for registering the replacement area as a recording prohibited area when the ratio of the defective areas in the replacement area exceeds a predetermined ratio for each of the one or more replacement areas. When the ratio of defective areas in the one or more replacement areas exceeds a predetermined ratio, it functions as a unit for registering all unused areas of the replacement areas of the recording medium as recording prohibited areas.

As a system in which a defect management system is introduced to an optical disk, a mount rainier (Mt. Rainier: hereinafter abbreviated as MRW) of a CD-RW disk and a DVD-RAM disk are known.
The description of the present invention is based on a typical MRW as a replacement process.
Will be explained as an example. The MRW realizes standard support by the OS by managing defective addresses by the device, fixing the sector size to 2 Kbytes, and unifying the command set. In addition, the MRW performs the initialization work of the optical disc in the background, so that the user can insert the purchased optical disc into the CD-R / RW drive device without requiring much time for the initialization like the conventional packet writing. Another feature is that you can use it immediately.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing the format of the recording area of an optical disc based on MRW. The recording area of this optical disc is provided with a defect management system based on MRW. According to MRW, the recording area is composed of a lead-in area (lead-in area), a program area (program area), and a lead-out area (lead-out area). The program area includes a plurality of spare areas (spare areas) SA1 to SAn, respective data areas (data areas) DA1 to DAn assigned so as to be paired with the spare areas SA1 to SAn, and a secondary table area (Secondary Table). Area: ST
A) and. The spare area and the data area are used as a pair. For example, the replacement destination of the data area DA1 is the spare area SA1, and even if the spare area SA1 has many empty spaces, it is not the replacement destination of the data area DA2.

On the other hand, if the spare area SA1 is used up due to a large number of replacements of the data area DA1, the spare area SA1 is replaced with the replacement destination of the data area DA1.
It is possible to set it to 2. The STA at the end of the program area is a defect management table, which is a CD.
A main table area (Main Table Area: M) provided in the lead-in area as well as a defect management table provided so as to be readable from a ROM.
It corresponds to a spare area of TA) (area in which exactly the same information is recorded). The MTA provided in the lead-in area is a replacement management table.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing the format of the replacement management table (MTA). This replacement management table is a main data table (Main Data Table).
e: MDT) is 0, and the defect table block (De
This is a table related to the spare area SA1 shown in FIG. 2 since the fact Table Blocks (DTB) is 0. Thus, when MDT is 0 and DTB is 1, the table corresponding to the spare area SA2 is shown.
Hereinafter, since MDT is 0 to 7 and DTB is 0 to 7, there is a maximum of MDT7 and DTB7, and it is possible to have a table of a total of 64 spare areas SA1 to SA64 by combining MDT and DTB.

The replacement information of the spare area SA1 can be known by referring to the defective address and the replacement address of the location where the entry type (Entry Type) of the replacement management table is the real location entry (Reallocation Entry). it can. In the case of FIG. 3, the defective area is the address 005.
From A0 to 005C0, it can be seen that the data is replaced with addresses 00400 to 00240, respectively. In addition, the entry type is free entry (Free entry
Entry indicates the address of the spare area SA that is available and unused in the replacement area, and the entry type is an unusable entry (Unusab).
The area marked “le Entry” is the defective address of the defective area, which means the use prohibited address (the address of the recording prohibited area). If there is a request for recording including a prohibited address in the future, it will be replaced.

As described above, this replacement management table relates to the spare area SA1 and the spare area S1.
In A1, the information of each area of addresses 005A0 to 005C0 is replaced by each area of addresses 00400 to 00240.
It can be seen that each area 28 is a defective address and is a recording prohibited area. In MRW, a congenital defect of the optical disc is registered when the optical disc 13 is initialized. The recording error at the time of initialization / the address at which a reproduction error during the verify operation performed at the time of initialization has occurred is registered in the unusable entry of the replacement management table, and the address is set as the recording prohibited address. Regarding an acquired defect, when an error occurs during the recording / verification after the recording and the result is replacement, the error occurrence address and the replacement destination address are registered in the real location entry.

Next, the reproducing process of the data replaced by the MRW will be described. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a format when the data reproduced from the optical disc is sent to the host computer. For example, when reproducing the data area DA1 shown in FIG. 2, first, the replacement management table is referenced to check whether or not there is a defective address in the data area DA1. If the defective address does not exist, the data in all the areas in the data area DA1 is read, all the data is transferred to the host computer 12, and the processing is ended.

On the other hand, if there is a defective address in the replacement management table, the information in the normal area of the data area DA1 is read, and then the information is read from the area of the replacement address in the spare area SA1 to make each data normal. The data is rearranged and transferred to the host computer 12. That is, as shown in FIG. 2, D of the data area DA1
If ATA2 and DATA5 are defective areas, DATA0,
DATA1, DATA3, DATA4, DATA6, D
ATA7 is read, DATA2 and DATA5, which have been replaced by spare 1 and spare 2 of the spare area SA1, are read, the respective data are rearranged in the order of DATA0 to DATA7, and transferred to the host computer 12 in the format shown in FIG.

Next, the processing according to claim 1 of the present invention in the CD-R / RW drive device 1 shown in FIG. 1 will be described. FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing the processing according to claim 1 of the present invention in the CD-R / RW drive device 1. The controller 9 performs steps (“S” in the figure)
1), an optical disc is inserted into the CD-R / RW drive device, it is determined in step 2 whether or not a recording or reproducing (Read / Write) command has been issued from the host computer for a certain period of time. If issued within the time, proceed to step 8.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step 2 that the recording or reproducing command has not been issued from the host computer for a certain period of time, the process proceeds to step 3 to specify in a plurality of spare areas to be reproduced in the background (for example, the leading SA1 is selected). It is determined whether or not the specified SA area (replacement area: SA) has an unused area. In this determination, in terms of MRW, it suffices to check whether or not there is a free entry (Free Entry) in the SA area designated in the replacement management table. If there is an unused area (if a free entry is found), go to step 4, and if there is no unused area (if not found), go to step 7.

At step 4, the unused area of the designated SA area is reproduced in the background, and at step 5, it is judged whether or not a defective area is found. In this judgment, it is judged that a defect is found when the unused area is reproduced and a reproduction error is detected. If a defective area is found, the defective address of the defective area is registered in the replacement management table as a recording prohibited area (use prohibited area) in step 9, and the process proceeds to step 6. Speaking of MRW, the defective address is registered in the unusable entry of the replacement management table. If no defective area is found in step 5, the process proceeds to step 6. Whether or not it is a defective area in this determination may be determined by whether or not a reproduction error occurs during reproduction.

In step 6, it is judged whether or not all the unused areas in the designated SA area have been reproduced, and if completed, the processing proceeds to step 7, and if not completed, the processing returns to step 5 to continue the above processing. . In step 7, it is judged whether or not all the SA areas in the replacement area on the optical disk have been reproduced in the background, and the processing in which the reproduction of all the SA areas has been completed is completed and there is an SA area that has not been reproduced yet. In this case, in step 10, the SA area to be reproduced next in the background (for example, the spare area SA2 after the spare area SA1 is finished) is designated, and the process returns to step 3 to repeat the above process.

After the recording prohibited area is registered in the unused area in the replacement area by the above-mentioned processing, when the data reproduction or recording is performed and the replacement processing is performed based on the request from the host computer, the controller 9 is used. Uses another normal area (usable area) without using the recording prohibited area registered in the replacement management table. In this way, when an optical disc is inserted, an acquired defect in the unused area of the replacement area (SA) is automatically detected, and the defective address is stored in the replacement management table as an unusable area before it is used in the replacement process. You can register. Therefore, the probability that an error will occur during verification of the replacement process at the time of recording / after recording is reduced, and the probability of continuously performing the replacement process in the replacement area (SA) is low, and the recording (replacement)
Performance can be improved.

Next, when a large number of acquired defects are found in a certain replacement area as a result of the above-mentioned processing, the fact that a large number of acquired defects are present is due to scratches on the disk or deterioration of the disk. Since the reliability of data reproduction and recording is lost in such an area, when performing replacement processing for the replacement area, when accessing an unused area in the replacement area, Since a reproduction error or a recording error is likely to occur when recording, it is desirable not to use such a replacement area as much as possible.

FIG. 6 is a data format diagram showing an example of usable areas and recording prohibited areas in the spare area SA. In the figure, the usable area (area of the address registered in the free entry of the replacement management table) in the spare area SA1 is indicated by a circle, and the recording prohibited area (registered in the unusable entry of the replacement management table). The address area) is indicated by a cross.

As described above, when the spare area SA1 has many defects and a large number of recording prohibited areas (for example, the proportion of the recording prohibited areas in the spare area SA1 is 50% or more), the spare area SA1 is It is desirable not to use the spare area SA1 as much as possible because a reproduction error or a recording error when recording is likely to occur when accessing the unused area. Therefore, as a result of performing the above operation, when an acquired defective area is found and the ratio of defective areas in the replacement area exceeds a predetermined value (or when the number of defective areas exceeds a predetermined value). It is advisable to register all unused areas in the replacement area as recording prohibited areas in the replacement management table.

Next, the processing according to claim 2 of the present invention in the CD-R / RW drive device 1 shown in FIG. 1 will be described. FIG. 7 is a flow chart showing the processing according to claim 2 of the present invention in the CD-R / RW drive device 1. This process is performed after the process shown in FIG. After the processing shown in FIG. 5, the controller 9 refers to the first replacement management table in step 21 (for example, SA1
Of the defective area in the designated SA area (replacement area: SA). As for the number of defective areas, the unusable entry of the replacement management table of the specified SA area is checked, and the address
It suffices to check the number of those in the area A (defective address).

In step 22, it is judged whether or not the ratio of the number of defective areas in this replacement area exceeds a predetermined ratio. This predetermined ratio is, for example, 5 in the SA area.
It should be 0%. Therefore, based on the acquired number of defective areas and the total number of areas in the replacement area, it is determined whether the ratio of the number of defective areas in the replacement area exceeds 50%. If the ratio of the number of defective areas in the replacement area does not exceed the predetermined ratio as determined in step 22, the process proceeds to step 23. If the ratio of the number of defective areas in the replacement area exceeds the predetermined ratio in the determination in step 22, the process proceeds to step 24 and the area registered as the usable area in the replacement management table of the specified SA area. Is changed to a recording prohibited area, and the entire SA area is registered as a recording prohibited area. For example, in the case of MRW, all free entries in the corresponding SA area of the replacement management table may be changed to unusable entries. After that, the process proceeds to step 23.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a replacement management table in which an unused area is entered and a format when the unused area is changed to a recording prohibited area. In addition,
For simplification of explanation, only the entry type, defective address, and replacement destination address columns in the replacement management table are shown in FIG. As shown in (a) of the same figure, change the free entry in the entry type column in which the replacement addresses 00421 to 004FF of the replacement management table are registered to an unusable entry as shown in (b) of the same figure. Thus, all the unused areas of the replacement area managed by this replacement management table are registered as recording prohibited areas.

In step 23 of FIG. 7, all S
It is determined whether or not the above-mentioned processing has been completed for the replacement management table of the area A, and if not completed, the process proceeds to step 25, the replacement management table of the next SA area is designated, and the process returns to step 21 to perform the above-described processing. Is repeated, and if completed, this process ends. In this way, each replacement management table corresponding to each replacement area is referenced in order from the beginning, and if the defective area exceeds a predetermined ratio in each replacement area based on each replacement management table, it is registered in the replacement management table. All registered unused areas are changed to record prohibited areas.

Further, in the above-described processing, the case where the proportion of defective areas in the spare area exceeds the predetermined value is shown as a criterion for registering all unused areas in the spare area in the recording prohibited area. However, the number of defective addresses registered in the replacement management table may be counted and it may be determined whether or not the number exceeds a predetermined value. The processing in this case refers to the replacement management table, checks the unusable entry column, and counts the number of defective addresses in the SA area managed by the replacement management table. further,
It is determined whether or not the number of defective addresses exceeds a predetermined numerical value. 128 may be preset as the predetermined numerical value. That is, it is checked whether the number of defective addresses indicating the defective portion in the SA area exceeds a predetermined number: 128. Then, when the number of defective addresses exceeds a predetermined numerical value, all areas registered as usable areas in the unused areas in the replacement management table of the SA area are re-registered in the recording prohibited area. The other processes are the same as the processes of the steps shown in FIG. 7.

FIG. 9 is a format diagram showing the position of the SA area in which all unused areas are registered as recording prohibited areas. As shown in the figure, when the unused areas of the spare area SA1 and the spare area SA2 are all registered in the recording prohibited area (indicated by the arrow in the figure) by the above-mentioned processing,
The spare area S is the replacement destination of the data areas DA1 and DA2.
It should be A3. After the registration of the recording prohibited area in the unused area in the replacement area by the above-described processing, when the data reproduction or recording is performed based on the request from the host computer to perform the replacement processing, the controller 9
If all the unused areas of the replacement management table of the replacement destination are entered in the recording prohibited area, another replacement area is used.

In this way, the replacement area (SA) in which a large number of acquired defects are found is prohibited, and the replacement processing to the replacement area (SA) is prohibited, so that the replacement area (SA) is protected. Since access can be reduced, the replacement area (S
It is possible to reduce recording and reproduction errors that occur when accessing A), and improve the reliability and performance of recording and reproduction.

Next, when a large number of acquired defects are found in all the replacement areas as a result of the above processing, it is considered that the entire optical disk is scratched or deteriorated. In any case, when data is recorded on the optical disk in the future, not only the replacement process is likely to occur frequently but also the reproduction reliability may be deteriorated.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a format example of the recording area of the optical disc in which a number of acquired defects are found in the replacement area. In the figure, together with each area of the recording area, the total number (total number) of defective sectors (defective areas) of each of the plurality of replacement areas and the replacement area in which all the unused areas are registered in the recording prohibited area by the above processing. Shows. It should be noted that the case where the reference value for determining the recording prohibited area exceeds the predetermined value 128 described above is shown. When a new optical disc is used, it is normal for almost no defects to occur. As shown in the figure, when many acquired defects are found in many SA areas, the entire surface of the optical disc is scratched. It is considered that the entire recording area has deteriorated. Therefore, in the case of such an optical disc, it is preferable to prohibit the subsequent data recording.

Next, the processing according to claim 3 of the present invention in the CD-R / RW drive device 1 shown in FIG. 1 will be described. FIG. 11 is a flow chart showing the processing according to claim 3 of the present invention in the CD-R / RW drive device 1. This process is performed after the process shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 11, after the processing shown in FIG. 5, the controller 9 sequentially refers to the replacement management tables corresponding to the replacement areas in step 31 from the beginning (for example, SA1).
Of the replacement management table) to obtain the number of defective areas in each SA area (replacement area: SA). The number of defective areas can be determined by checking the unusable entries in the replacement management table of the designated SA area, and checking the number of the addresses (defective addresses) within the SA area. Further, after checking the defective address information in each SA area, all the defective address information in each SA area are combined to calculate the total number of defective addresses in all SA areas in the optical disc.

In step 32, it is judged whether or not the ratio of the total number of defective addresses in all SA areas (replacement areas) in the optical disk exceeds a predetermined ratio. The predetermined ratio may be 50% of the entire SA area, for example. Therefore, it is determined whether or not the ratio occupied by the number of defective areas in all the replacement areas exceeds 50% based on the total number of acquired defective addresses and the total number of all the areas in all the replacement areas. If it is determined in step 32 that the ratio of the total number of defective addresses in all SA areas does not exceed the predetermined ratio, this process is terminated.
Unused area on the optical disk (SA area and DA area)
Is registered as a recording prohibited area, and this processing ends. M
In the case of RW, in order to prohibit the data recording on the optical disc, not only is the free entry in the replacement management table indicating the unused area of each SA area re-registered in the unusable entry, but also the unused DA area All addresses of are also registered in the unusable entry.

It is also possible to judge whether or not the total number of defective addresses in all SA areas in the optical disk exceeds a predetermined numerical value in the processing of step 32 described above. The predetermined numerical value may be 8192, for example. This value needs to be changed depending on the number of SA areas. That is,
When the total number of defective addresses in all SA areas in the optical disk exceeds a predetermined numerical value, unused areas (SA area and DA area) on the optical disk are registered as recording prohibited areas.

In this way, in the case where the optical disk has scratches over a wide area or the recording area of the optical disk has deteriorated over a wide area, it is possible to prohibit recording on the optical disk, and then reproduce. Data recording that may be lost can be prevented, and the reliability of data at the time of reproduction after recording can be prevented. In addition, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the case where there are a plurality of replacement areas has been shown, but the present invention can be implemented in the same manner as above even when there is one replacement area.

[0042]

As described above, according to the information recording / reproducing apparatus of the present invention, the quality of the spare area is grasped in advance before the external data recording or reproducing request is made.
It is possible to prevent the performance of the processing from being deteriorated by the continuous execution of the replacement processing due to the defect in the replacement area.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a system configuration including a CD-R / RW drive device and a host computer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a format of a recording area of an optical disc based on MRW.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a format of a replacement management table (MTA).

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a format when data reproduced from an optical disc is sent to a host computer.

5 is a flow chart showing a process according to claim 1 of the present invention in the CD-R / RW drive device 1 shown in FIG. 1. FIG.

FIG. 6 is a data format diagram showing an example of a usable area and a recording prohibited area in a spare area SA.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a process according to claim 2 of the present invention in the CD-R / RW drive device 1 shown in FIG.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a replacement management table in which an unused area is entered and a format when the unused area is changed to a recording prohibited area.

FIG. 9 is a format diagram showing the position of an SA area in which all unused areas are registered as recording prohibited areas.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a format example of a recording area of an optical disc in which a number of acquired defects are found in a replacement area.

11 is a CD-R / RW drive device 1 shown in FIG.
FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the processing according to claim 3 of the present invention in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

1: CD-R / RW drive device 2: Spindle motor 3: Rotation control system 4: Optical pickup 5: Coarse motor 6: Coarse motor control system 7: Signal processing system 8: Optical pickup control system 9: Controller 10: Buffer memory 11: Non-volatile memory 12: Host computer 13: Optical disc

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. When information is recorded or reproduced in a predetermined recording unit on a recording medium having one or a plurality of replacement areas in the information recording area and a defective area is detected during the recording or reproduction, the defect is detected. In an information recording / reproducing apparatus provided with means for substituting the information in the area with the alternative area, an unused area in the alternative area of the recording medium is reproduced while an information recording or reproducing command for the recording medium is not instructed from the outside. An information recording / reproducing apparatus comprising: a recording-prohibited area registration means for registering a defective area found by the reproduction as a recording-prohibited area when a replacement process is performed. 2. When the ratio of defective areas in the replacement area exceeds a predetermined ratio for each of the one or more replacement areas, the replacement area is registered in the recording prohibited area as a recording prohibited area. The information recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: 3. The recording-prohibited area registration means stores all unused areas of the replacement area of the recording medium in the recording-prohibited area when a ratio of defective areas in the one or more replacement areas exceeds a predetermined ratio. 2. The information recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising means for registering as.