Patent ID: 8498191

Claim:
An information recording/reproducing method in an information recording/reproducing apparatus for recording information onto an optical disc or reproducing the recorded information by focusing a light beam emitted from a light source on the optical disc via an objective lens, the optical disc having a plurality of recording layers, layer type information indicating a type of each of the recording layers being recorded in advance in the each recording layer, said information recording/reproducing method comprising: a number-of-layer detecting process of setting power of the light beam emitted from the light source, to second power, which is weaker than first power as one power, and detecting the number of the recording layers provided for the optical disc; a lens controlling process of controlling the objective lens to focus the light beam emitted from the light source on one recording layer which is the closest to the objective lens out of the plurality of recording layers, in a condition that the detected number of the recording layers is greater than or equal to three; a power setting process of setting the power of the light beam emitted from the light source to third power, which is between the first power and the second power, after said lens controlling process; a number-of-layer specifying process of specifying the number of the recording layers provided for the optical disc on the basis of layer information, which is information associated with the one recording layer; and a type specifying process of setting the power of the light beam emitted from the light source to the first power after said number-of-layer specifying process, reading the layer type information recorded in advance in the one recording layer, and specifying a type of the optical disc on the basis of the read layer type information.