Patent ID: RE41155

Claim:
An image recording apparatus in which an image recording media which logically has an image data recording area and an image data management area for managing a recording state of image data in said image data recording area and cannot be overwritten is applied, and comprising: including image data pseudo-erasing means for executing a predetermined process to said image data management area to erase image data on said image recording media, so that the image data in said image data recording area is pseudo-erased, characterized by comprising: recording mode setting means for setting a recording mode for recording image data by in said image recording media; unerased area data detection means for performing an erasing operation by said image data pseudo-erasing means to detect detecting an unerased image data unerased area in said image data recording area of said image recording media; image data erasing means for substantially erasing image data in said unerased area detected by said unerased area detection means; and control means for performing control such that said unerased area detection means detects an unerased image data unerased area in response to a recording mode setting operation by said recording mode setting means, and said image data erasing means starts a substantially erasing operation for image data in said detected unerased area ; and image data pseudo - erasing means for executing a predetermined process to said image data management area to erase image data on said image recording media, so that the image data in said image data recording area is pseudo - erased .