Patent ID: 7196865

Claim:
A recording apparatus comprising: a discoid record medium; a head for writing or reading data to/from the discoid record medium; a rotation shaft for rotating the discoid record medium; a selector; and a control unit for controlling a position of the head, wherein servo information for determination of the head position is stored circularly in advance on the discoid record medium; the control unit reads position conversion information, which is stored in advance in a predetermined area on concentric orbits defined by the servo information on the discoid record medium; the selector selects servo information or position conversion information which is provided to the control unit; when the position conversion information is selected, the control unit controls the head based on the position conversion information so that the head follows a virtual track of which center is the rotation center of the discoid record medium, the virtual track being different from the track determined by the servo information; the predetermined area on the concentric orbits defined by the servo information is an area from which the position conversion information can be read out even when data has been written along the concentric orbits of which center is the rotation shaft, and is an area on which a user cannot overwrite any data; and at a start-up of the recording apparatus, the control unit reads out the position conversion information and controls the head based on the read out position conversion information or servo information.