Patent ID: 8296529

Claim:
A method of managing a recording medium, comprising the steps of: generating at least one currently open recording range in a first session on a data area of the recording medium, the first session comprising one or more recording ranges, each currently open recording range having a recordable location; recording management information onto at least one of first and second temporary management areas of the recording medium until the recording medium is finalized, the first temporary management area being allocated to a lead-in area by a predetermined size, the second temporary management area being allocated to a spare area by a non-predetermined size between 0 and a maximum size, the management information including one or more entries respectively corresponding to one or more recording ranges generated on the recording medium, each entry including a start address of a corresponding recording range and indication information for indicating whether the corresponding recording range is a start recording range of the first session, the management information also including a list of currently open recording ranges which has one or more identifications that identify each currently open recording range existing on the recording medium, a maximum number of the identifications included in the list of currently open recording ranges being limited to a predetermined number; closing the first session, including changing every currently open recording range contained in the first session to a closed recording range, while not closing an unrecorded area of a currently open recording range located last in the first session, wherein a size of the first session is changed when the first session is closed; after the first session is closed, creating a second session, wherein the unrecorded area of the currently open recording range located last in the first session becomes a start recording range of the second session for storing user data; and recording a new list of currently open recording ranges onto at least one of the first and second temporary management areas, the new list of currently open recording ranges not including an identification corresponding to a recording range included in the list of opened recording ranges of the first session and subsequently changed when closing the first session from an open recording range to a closed recording range, the new list of currently open recording ranges including the unrecorded area of the currently open recording range located last in the first session as the start recording range of the second session.