Optical disk drive for precisely adjusting the intensity of laser light irradiated onto an optical disk

An optical disk drive, comprising:

• a laser control means for controlling the power level of laser light with which data is recorded in a test area on a recording medium;
• an information reproducing means for reading and reproducing recorded information, which has been recorded with said power level, from said recording medium;
• an amplitude measuring means for measuring the amplitude of a reproduced signal produced by said information reproducing means;
• and
• a recording power level calculating means for, after said laser control means sequentially varies said power level to write data in said test area on said recording medium, when said amplitude measuring means measures the amplitude of said reproduced signal representing the data written in said test area, calculating said recording power level according to a test power level with which the result of measuring the amplitude falls within a predetermined range, wherein said laser control means sequentially varies said power level by a first variation to write data in said test area, said amplitude measuring means measures the amplitude of said reproduced signal representing data written in said test area, and said power level with which the result of measuring the amplitude falls within a first predetermined range is adopted as a first test power level;
• said laser control means sequentially varies said first test power level by a second variation, which is smaller than said first variation, to write data in said test area, said amplitude measuring means measures the amplitude of said reproduced signal representing data written in said test area, and said power level with which the result of measuring the amplitude falls within a second range narrower than said first predetermined range is adopted as a second test power level;
• and
• said second test power level is adopted as a test power level.