Patent ID: 7831130

Claim:
A recording apparatus which employs a circulating recording scheme for overwriting the oldest recorded data in a recording area having a limited storage capacity with the latest recorded data, said recording apparatus comprising: a memory device including a data recording area for recording data, an index information area for recording index information related to the data recorded in said data recording area, and a reserve index information area provided in part of said data recording area for recording substantially the same index information as the index information; and data recovering means operative when an error is found in index information recorded in said index information area for recovering the index information in said index information area based on the index information in said reserve index information area, wherein said data recording area includes a plurality of data unit areas, wherein the recorded data is divided and recorded in each unit area, wherein said index information area includes a plurality of index unit areas, wherein said index information is divided and recorded in each said index unit area corresponding to the data unit area, wherein said recovering means checks the index information from one index unit area to another for an error, and recovers index information from the error in an index unit area which is determined to include the error wherein said data recording area records data of a plurality of video frames, and each of the plurality of video frames is given a serial number, wherein said index information unit area records index information which includes frame information indicative of a first frame number and the number of video frames recorded in a data unit area corresponding to said index unit area, and a state flag for identifying whether data in said data unit area is in a normal state, or in an unused state, or in a damaged state, wherein said recording apparatus further comprises a check queue area for recording whether each of data in said plurality of data unit areas recorded in said data recording area is in a recovered state, or in a suspended state, or in an unchecked state, and wherein said recovering means checks said plurality of data unit areas and index unit areas for an error based on the information recorded in said state flag and the information recorded in said check queue area.