Patent ID: 7397744

Claim:
A recording and/or reproducing apparatus for a recording medium in a write-once recording area of which allowing for writing data once the management information and the user data are recorded, and in which the written/unwritten indicating information indicating whether data has been written in each data unit in at least an area for recording said user data and the last recording position information indicating the last position of recording of the recorded user data are recorded as said management information, said apparatus comprising: a recording and/or reproducing unit for recording and/or reproducing data for said recording medium; a storage unit for storage of the management information read out from said recording medium; and a controller for updating the contents of the management information stored in said recording unit, responsive to execution of data recording by said recording and/or reproducing unit, and for causing said recording and/or reproducing unit to record the management information, stored in said storage unit, on said recording medium, responsive to generation of an unrecorded area in a range up to a location on said recording medium indicated by said last recording position of said management information.