Patent ID: 7813236

Claim:
An information recording medium including a plurality of sectors, the information recording medium comprising a data recording area, the data recording area including: a first spare area having a replacement area including a spare sector for replacing a defective area including a defective sector among the plurality of sectors; a defect management information area in which defect management information for managing the replacement of the defective area including the defective sector by the replacement area including the spare sector is recorded; and a volume space, wherein: each of the sectors in the data recording area is assigned a physical sector number; the volume space includes a first volume structure area, a second volume structure area, and a logical volume space; the physical sector number assigned to the sector of the second volume structure area is larger than the physical sector number assigned to the sector of the first volume structure area, and the physical sector number assigned to the sector of the logical volume space is larger than the physical sector number assigned to the sector of the first volume structure area and is smaller than the physical sector number assigned to the sector of the second volume structure area; in the data recording area, by moving the second volume structure area in a direction along which the physical sector number decreases, a second spare area having a replacement area including a spare sector for replacing a defective area including a defective sector among the plurality of sectors can be allocated in an area including a sector having a physical sector number which is larger than a physical sector number assigned to the spare sector in the first spare area, and by moving the second volume structure area in a direction along which the physical sector number decreases, the second spare area can be extended in a direction along which the physical sector number decreases; and the defect management information area has an area for recording location information which indicates a location of the second spare area.