Patent ID: 7380159

Claim:
A method for managing a defective block, the method comprising: (a) reading a defect management information recorded on a defect management area of a recording medium, prior to a writing of current data, the defect management information including first position information for specifying a location of the defective block, second position information for specifying a location of a replacement block within a spare area to replace the defective block and status information for specifying whether or not the defective block is replaced; (b) identifying the defect management information; and (c) controlling a writing operation of current data according to a result of the step (b), such that (i) the current data is written to a next available replacement block of the spare area, if a data block to be written is listed in the defect management information, the second position information does not specify a location of the replacement block and the status information specifies that the defective block is not replaced, when a linear replacement of the defective block is allowed for the current data, and (ii) the current data is written to a pre-specified replacement block of the spare area, if a data block to be written is listed in the first information of the defect management information, the second position information specifies a location of replacement block and the status information specifies that the defective block is not replaced, when a linear replacement of the defective block is allowed for the current data.