Patent ID: 7327646

Claim:
A method of formatting an optical recording medium, said optical recording medium including a first spare area, a second spare area for replacing a defective unit with available replacement unit, and a defect management area including a defect management information for managing a defective area, the method comprising: (a) formatting the optical recording medium in response to the formatting request at least to use the second spare area as a continuous portion of a user data area after formatting, wherein the second spare area is changed into the continuous portion of the user data area by formatting so that a size of the user data area is increased; and, (b) resetting a location information of the second spare area to indicate a changed size of the second spare area after formatting, wherein the step (a) of formatting the optical recording medium includes creating a new defect list of the defect management area to replace an old defect list in response to changing of the second spare area, and wherein the second spare area has a variable size and a start position of the second spare area is varied, depending upon the variance of the size of the second spare area, while an end position of the second spare area is fixed and is located close to a lead-out area of the recording medium.