Patent ID: 7240221

Claim:
A recording and/or reproducing apparatus for a recording medium, comprising: a rotation drive unit for rotationally driving a recording medium having a first recording area where enciphered data is recorded, and a second recording area provided at a position where a read-out operation is carried out ahead of the first recording area and including a first area portion where cipher key data for decoding the enciphered data is recorded and a second area portion where a guide portion for recording data modulated by a modulation system different from a modulation system of the first area portion is formed; a head unit for scanning the recording medium; and a control unit for rotationally controlling the rotation drive unit based on an output signal from the head unit and for carrying out switching of rotation control of the rotation drive unit at least between the first area portion and the second area portion; wherein the control unit is operative so that when the first area portion is scanned by the head portion, the control unit carries out control of the rotation drive unit based on a synchronizing signal detected from an output signal from the head unit, and when the second area portion is scanned by the head unit the control unit carries out rotation control of the rotation drive unit based on an inversion time period detected from an output signal from the head unit.