Patent ID: 7345974

Claim:
An optical recording/reproducing apparatus for recording/reproducing information on/from a write once type optical recording medium, comprising: recording means for recording information by irradiating the recording medium with a laser beam; reproducing means for reproducing information by irradiating the recording medium with a laser beam; laser power adjusting means for adjusting intensity of the laser beam based on a state of recording/reproducing predetermined information on/from a predetermined laser power adjusting area; reserving means for reserving an additional area for adjusting laser power on an area other than the laser power adjusting area; and determining means for determining whether reserving the additional area is necessary, lead-out information recording means for recording lead-out information on a lead-out area, wherein the reserving means reserves the additional area at an area capable of maintaining format compatibility with a read only type optical recording medium according to determination that reserving the additional area is necessary by the determining means, and wherein the lead-out information recording means records the lead-out information so that the additional area reserved by the reserving means is more apart from a recording area of main information than the lead-out area.