Patent ID: 7266724

Claim:
An information read and write apparatus comprising: read device for reading one or more pieces of program information stored on a first information storage medium; write device for writing said program information read from said first information storage medium onto a second information storage medium; power supply means for supplying an electric power from a main power source or an auxiliary power source to the read device and the write device; detector means for detecting an interruption of at least any one of a read operation of said read device and a write operation of said write device in the course of writing said program information by said write device, said interruption being caused due to an electric power failure of the main power source; determination means which operates when said detector means has detected the interruption, to supply an electric power from the auxiliary power source, to determine a write status of program information on said second information storage medium at the time of said interruption, and to store the write status sent from the detector means in a nonvolatile memory; control means for controlling said read device and said write device, upon restarting writing said program information by said write device and in response to the write status read from the nonvolatile memory when the electric power supply from the main power source is restored, to continue a write operation on said second information storage medium from the program information to be read subsequent to the program information at the time of said interruption or to perform a rewrite operation on said second information storage medium from said program information at the time of said interruption.