Patent ID: 7782724

Claim:
An information reproducing apparatus that focuses a light beam onto a rotating storage medium and detects a reflected light of the light beam so as to reproduce information stored on the storage medium, the information reproducing apparatus comprising: an objective lens that focuses the light beam toward the storage medium; a focus detector that detects the reflected light to generate a focus error signal indicative of focus shift of the objective lens with respect to the storage medium; a focus actuator that moves the objective lens in a direction toward or away from the storage medium; a surface deflection memory that stores and reproduces the amount of surface deflection of the storage medium in the direction toward or away from the objective lens; and a controller that controls the focus actuator in such a way that the objective lens is first brought closer to the storage medium from a separate position apart from the storage medium while the amount of surface deflection reproduced from the surface deflection memory is referred to until the focus error signal is detected, and then focusing of the light beam onto the storage medium is maintained based on the focus error signal, wherein the controller includes a control preparation part that determines the amount of surface deflection and stores the amount of surface deflection in the surface deflection memory by controlling the focus actuator to cause the objective lens to perform a motion in which the objective lens is brought closer to the storage medium from the separate position apart from the storage medium and moved away from the storage medium when the focus error signal is detected.