Patent ID: 6978404

Claim:
An information recording apparatus for recording information on an information recording medium including a user area for recording user data and a defect substitute area including a substitute area usable instead of a defect area in the user area, the information recording apparatus comprising: a defect list update section for updating a defect list having a defect address registered therein which represents a position of the defect area in the user area; and a recording section for recording information on the information recording medium based on the updated defect list, wherein: the defect list is a secondary defect list including the defect address representing a position of the defect area detected when recording information on the information recording medium and a substitute address representing a position of the substitute area for substituting for the defect area, the defect list update section determines whether or not an area designated by the defect address registered in the defect list is a defect area, when the area designated by the defect address is determined not to be a defect area, the defect list update section deletes the defect address, registered in the defect list, from the defect list, and when the area designated by the defect address is determined to be a defect area, the defect list update section updates the defect list such that the substitute address is not assigned to the defect address.