Information storage medium having flexibility for allocating an area, recording method, reproducing method and apparatus thereof

A method to obtain flexibility of allocating areas on a disc, comprising:

• reading from the disc, location information of each area disposed on the disc;
• and
• recognizing each area disposed on the disc based on the read location information.

An apparatus, comprising:

• a writing/reading unit recording data on and/or reading data from a disc;
• and
• a control unit controlling the writing/reading unit to record on the disc location information corresponding to each of a lead-in area, a user data area, a spare area, and a lead-out area disposed on the disc.

An apparatus, comprising:

• a writing and/or reading unit reading location information corresponding to each area disposed on a disc, from the disc;
• and
• a control unit recognizing each area disposed on the disc based on the read location information.

A single recording layer disc for use in a disc drive in which a lead-in area, a data area and a lead-out area are disposed and in the data area, at least one spare area and a user data area are disposed, wherein location information to recognize each of the at least one spare area and the user data area is recorded, in at least one of the lead-in area, the data area, or the lead-out area, and the disc drive recognizes the at least one spare area and the user data area by referring to the location information.

A disc having double recording layers for use with a disc drive, including a first recording layer in which a lead-in area, a first data area having at least one first spare area, and a first outer area are disposed, and a second recording layer in which a second outer area, a second data area having at least one second spare area, and a lead-out area are disposed, wherein location information to recognize each of the at least one first and second spare areas and the first and second data areas is recorded in at least one of the lead-in area, the lead-out area, the first outer area or the second outer area, and the disc drive recognizes the at least one first and second spare areas and the first and second data areas by referring to the location information.

An apparatus, comprising:

• an optical pickup recording and/or reproducing data on/from recording layers of an information storage medium;
• and
• a controller controlling the recording and/or reproducing of the data, wherein the recording of the data comprises allocating areas on the recording layers of the information storage medium and recording location information designating each of the allocated areas in a defect management area of the recording layers and recording the data in selected allocated areas using the location information, and the reproducing of the data comprises reading the location information such that the data stored in each of the allocated areas may be reproduced based on the read location information.