Optical disk drive and method for allocating spare area on optical disk medium

An optical disk drive that is connected to external host equipment, said optical disk drive being capable of allocating, if a recording area on an optical disk medium includes a defective sector, a spare area for alternate-recording of the defective sector to another area on the medium, said optical disk drive comprising:

• a medium property measurement part which measures the optical disk medium for medium properties relating to error tolerance of the medium;
• an area size determination part which determines the spare-area size suitable for the medium on the basis of the measured medium properties;
• a notification part which notifies the host equipment of the determined spare-area size;
• and
• an area allocating part which allocates a spare area on the medium according to an instruction from the host equipment.

A method for allocating a spare area on an optical disk medium, in which if a recording area on the optical disk medium includes a defective sector, the spare area for alternate-recording of the defective sector is allocated to another area on the medium, said method comprising the steps of:

• acquiring, from the optical disk medium, medium information specific to the medium;
• determining the spare-area size suitable for the medium on the basis of the acquired medium information;
• and
• allocating a spare area having the determined size on the medium.

A method for allocating a spare area on an optical disk medium, in which if a recording area on the optical disk medium includes a defective sector, the spare area for alternate-recording of the defective sector is allocated to another area on the medium, said method comprising the steps of:

• measuring the optical disk medium for medium properties relating to error tolerance of the medium;
• determining the spare-area size of the medium on the basis of the measured medium properties;
• and
• allocating a spare area having the determined size on the medium.