Suitability of a recording medium for being recorded to and/or reproduced from by an apparatus is determined. Address information is read from a recording medium having at least a first area in which data is recordable, a second area, and a third area. The second area is followed by the first area which is followed by the third area. The address information includes first address information, which represents the position of the second area, and/or second address information which represents the position of the third area. A possible error in the address information is detected based on an error detection code generated for the address information. Whether the recording medium is suitable for being recorded to or reproduced from by the apparatus is determined based on a result of the detecting step. The recording medium is suitable when no error is detected and is unsuitable when an error is detected.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
The present application is a divisional of U.S. application Ser. No. 09/937,574, filed Feb. 26, 2002, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,016,279, issued Mar. 21, 2006, which is a national stage application under 35 U.S.C. .sctn. 371 of International Application No. PCT/JP01/00923, filed Feb. 9, 2001, which claims priority from Japanese Application No. P2000-038208, filed Feb. 10, 2000, and Japanese Application No. P2000-125817, filed Apr. 26, 2000, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Priority Data
Feb 10, 2000 [JP] 2000-38208 Apr 26, 2000 [JP] 2000-125817
