Patent ID: 8363524

Claim:
An information reproducing apparatus that reproduces information from an optical disk and transfers the information to an upper-level system, comprising: a spindle motor to rotate the optical disk; a pickup to irradiate a laser light to the optical disk so as to reproduce information from the optical disk; a reproduction circuit to reproduce information from the optical disk based on a reproduction signal read from the pickup; a servo circuit to control the rotation of the spindle motor and the movement of the pickup; and a microprocessor arranged to control reproduction performed by the pickup, via the reproduction circuit and the servo circuit, and control transfer of information reproduced from the optical disk to an upper-level system, wherein the microprocessor comprises: an unrecorded area decision unit to decide, based on an amplitude of the reproduction signal whether a block is a recorded area or an unrecorded area; a track-off detection unit to monitor a tracking servo signal sent from the servo circuit and detect an occurrence of a tracking failure; and a track-off block memory unit to record positional information on a block which the track-off detection unit has recognized as an area where a tracking failure has occurred; wherein, if a block is an unrecorded area and recognized as an area where a tracking failure has occurred, reproduction is ceased but data indicating that the block is an unrecorded area is not transferred to the upper-level system and retry is performed in order to achieve reproduction; and wherein, if a block is an unrecorded area and recognized as an area where a tracking failure has not occurred, data indicating that the block is an unrecorded area which is recognized as an area where tracking failure has not occurred is transferred to the upper-level system, and reproduction of data is continued over a range requested from the upper-level system, wherein the range includes the block of the unrecorded area which is recognized as the area where a tracking failure has not occurred corresponding to the data transferred to the upper-level system.