Patent ID: 8456970

Claim:
An information recording apparatus which records disc structure definition information for defining a structure of an optical disc, in management areas of the optical disc comprising a data area and the management areas positioned on an inner periphery side and an outer periphery side of the data area, the information recording apparatus comprising: a memory which stores disc structure definition information of a new version comprising an invalid mark which cannot be interpreted as the disc structure definition information by an information reproducing apparatus and an information recording/reproducing apparatus being non-adaptive; and a recording control device which, when the disc structure definition information of the new version is recorded in the management areas, records the invalid mark and information common to disc structure definition information of an old version as the disc structure definition information of the new version, in an area comprising the management areas in which the disc structure definition information of the old version without the invalid mark needs to be recorded, and controls recording of the disc structure definition information of the new version such that the invalid mark is positioned at a position in the management areas in which at least position information indicating a recording start position of data in the data area and position information indicating a recording position of defect management information related to a defect of the optical disc, which are included in the disc structure definition information of the old version, need to be recorded.