Patent ID: 7898920

Claim:
A header region protection apparatus of an optical storage medium, comprising: an encoder converting user data into an EFM signal and a write enable signal according to a write clock and generating a significant region signal according to the EFM signal, wherein the significant region signal specifies a significant region containing important data; a header location generator generating a header location signal; and a header protector generating a header protect write enable signal according to the write enable signal and the header location signal, wherein the header location generator comprises a PID detector receiving a decoded EFM signal, a sector period detector receiving a fixed clock, a PID decoding signal and a header end signal provided by the PID detector, a counter receiving and counting the fixed clock, a header region predictor receiving a sector period value dynamically determined by the sector period detector and a counter value generated by the counter, and two input terminals respectively receiving the decoded EFM signal and the fixed clock, wherein the fixed clock is independent of the write clock.