Information recording medium with prepit and recording/reproducing apparatus and method using the same

Abstract

An information recording medium that can be rapidly finalized, and a recording/reproducing apparatus and method using the same are provided. In the information recording medium, a prepit is pre-formed in a finalization area. Since the portion that has to be filled with data in finalizing the information recording medium is previously formed as the prepits series in manufacturing the information recording medium, the time necessary to finalize the information recording medium can be shortened, thereby achieving the rapid finalization of the medium.

1 . A recording/reproducing method for recording data on an information recording medium or reproducing data recorded on the information recording medium, the recording/reproducing method comprising:
 reading information indicating whether a first middle area is embossed, from a predetermined area in the information recording medium comprising a data area configured to store user data; the first middle area whose location is fixed, and which is configured to be embossed by a manufacturer; a second middle area which is variably positioned according to the amount of the user data to be recorded in the data area, and the predetermined area configured to store the information indicating whether the first middle area is embossed; and   recording data for finalization in the first middle area during finalization of the information recording medium, when the information indicates that the first middle area is not embossed, and   wherein an outer circumference of the first middle area is adjacent to an unused area, an outer circumference of the unused area is adjacent to a buffer area, and an outer circumference of the buffer area is adjacent to a test area.   
     
     
         2 . The recording/reproducing method of  claim 1 , wherein the information is read from a control data area. 
     
     
         3 . The recording/reproducing method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 when the information indicates that the first middle area is embossed, controlling not to record data in the first middle area during the process of finalizing the information recording medium.