Patent ID: 7543217

Claim:
A method of determining suitability of a recording medium for being recorded to and/or reproduced from by a given apparatus, the method comprising: reading address information from the recording medium, the recording medium having at least a first area in which data is recordable, a second area, and a third area, the second area being followed by the first area, the first area being followed by the third area, the address information being at least one of first address information and second address information, the first address information representing the position of the second area, the second address information representing the position of the third area; detecting a possible error in the address information based on a result generated using at least a portion of the address information read from the recording medium; and determining whether the recording medium is suitable for being recorded to or being reproduced from by the given apparatus based on a result of said detecting step, the recording medium being suitable for being recorded to or being reproduced from by the given apparatus when no error is detected in the address information and being unsuitable for being recorded to or being reproduced from by the given apparatus when an error is detected in the address information.