Patent ID: 7257057

Claim:
An information recording apparatus for recording information to an optical disk on which a data area for recording user data and a defect management area for recording a defect list for managing N number of defect areas existing in the data area, where N is an integer satisfying N≧0, are allocated; the information recording apparatus including: a defect list recording portion for recording the defect list, the defect list recording unit comprising: a portion for recording a header located at a fixed position in the defect list; a portion for recording N number of defect entries, located subsequent to the header, including position information on the respective positions of the N number of defect areas; and a portion for recording an anchor located subsequent to the defect entries, wherein the header includes first update times information representing the number of times which the defect list has been updated, and wherein the anchor includes an anchor identifier for identifying the anchor of the defect list and second update times information representing the number of times which the defect list has been updated.