Patent ID: 6891783

Claim:
An information recording/reproducing apparatus for recording an information signal in units of predetermined block length on a recording medium which has previously been formed with prepits associated with recording timings, said apparatus comprising: a reader for reading recorded information from said recording medium to generate a read signal; a prepit detector for detecting the prepits from the read signal to generate a prepit detection signal; a recording timing signal detector for detecting a block signal indicative of a recording timing for the information signal based on the prepit detection signal; an auxiliary recording timing signal generator for generating a pulse signal having the same period as the block length by using a reference clock signal, and outputting the pulse signal as an auxiliary block signal; and a recording controller for recording the information signal on said recording medium at a recording timing in accordance with the block signal when the prepit detection signal is normal, and for recording the information signal on said recording medium at a recording timing in accordance with the auxiliary block signal when the prepit detection signal is defective.