Patent ID: 8077567

Claim:
A recording and reproducing apparatus comprising: a drive unit that reads data from a first medium that is a medium in which data is recorded; a drive unit control unit that controls the drive unit; a second medium having a memory capacity greater than or equal to a memory capacity of the first medium and having a speed at which data is read or written from or in the second recording medium that is higher than a speed at which data is read or written from or in the first medium; a second medium control unit that controls reading or writing of data from or in the second medium; an input/output unit that inputs a reading request fed from a control unit that issues the reading request with which predetermined data is read from among data items stored in the first medium or second medium, and outputs data designated with the reading request; and an access control unit that controls the drive unit control unit or second medium control unit to, after a loading action is performed on the first medium by the drive unit, initiate reading of all data items recorded in the first medium to the second medium, and upon determination that the reading request for the predetermined data is inputted prior to completion of reading of all the data items, and that the predetermined data is not located in the second medium, the reading is stopped at a first position to search the first medium to determine a second position in the first medium corresponding to a beginning of the predetermined data to output the predetermined data to the input/output unit, and after the predetermined data is outputted, the reading of the data items from the first medium is resumed at a third position until an end of the data items is reached in the first medium, the third position corresponding to the end of the predetermined data and distinguishable from the end of the data items, and upon reaching the end of the data items, reading of the data items from the first medium to the second medium is resumed at the first position to read data items from the first medium between the first and second positions.