Patent ID: 7609600

Claim:
An optical disc recording/reproducing apparatus for recording/reproducing data onto/from a rewritable recording medium having a data region which records data information and a management region which records management information for managing said data region, the optical disc recording/reproducing apparatus comprising: a recording/reproducing part to record/reproduce said data information and said management information onto/from said recording medium; and a controller to control said recording/reproducing part, wherein said recording/reproducing part records data with the use of one of a first write mode for sequentially recording data onto an unrecorded region from a predetermined position and a second write mode for recording data onto a recording region while overwriting the data, which are recording modes recorded in said management region of said recording medium, at an initial time of recording data onto said data region of said recording medium, said controller instructs said recording/reproducing part to record a fact that said first write mode is used onto said management region of said recording medium and, also, to record the data with the use of said first write mode, when it is determined that data to be recorded next cannot be recorded onto said unrecorded region in said data region of said recording medium with the use of said first write mode, said controller instructs said recording/reproducing part to record a fact that said second write mode is used onto said management region of said recording medium and, also, to record said data to be recorded next with the use of said second write mode, said first write mode is a sequential recording mode and said second write mode is a restricted over write mode, said recording medium is Digital Versatile Disk ReWritable, and when it is determined that data to be recorded next cannot be recorded onto said unrecorded region in said data region of said recording medium with the use of said first write mode, said controller further instructs said recording/reproducing part to record lead-out after the recording region of said recording medium.