US20060250921A1

US20060250921A1 - Method of optimizing write strategy based on write strategy study performed in recording information area having similar medium characteristic to that of user data recording point and apparatus thereof

Info

Publication number: US20060250921A1
Application number: US11/405,527
Authority: US
Inventors: Min-seok Kim; Yong-jin Ahn
Original assignee: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd
Current assignee: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd
Priority date: 2005-05-09
Filing date: 2006-04-18
Publication date: 2006-11-09
Also published as: EP1722373A3; EP1722373B1; US7864642B2; US20060250920A1; EP1722373A2

Abstract

A method of optimizing a write strategy (WS) by performing a WS study in a recording information area which is similar to a user data recording point in a medium characteristic, and which can be implemented in an optical recording apparatus, includes determining a condition of a recording point of a user data area of a rewritable optical disk and at which user data is to be recorded, determining a part of a recording information area storing recording information about the user data to be a WS study area to perform a WS study based on the determined condition of the recording point, and obtaining an optimal WS by performing the WS study in the determined WS study area. Accordingly, it is possible to obtain an optimal WS with respect to the UDA that has been used several times.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims benefit under 35 U.S.C. § 119 from Korean Patent Applications Nos. 2005-38414 and 2005-38915, filed on May 9, 2005 and May 10, 2005 in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the entire content of which is incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention
Aspects of the present invention relate to a write strategy (WS) optimizing method and an optical recording apparatus employing the same. More particularly, aspects of the present invention relate to a method of optimizing a WS based on a WS study performed in a recording information area, the medium characteristic of which is similar to that of a user data recording point, and an optical recording apparatus using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
An optical recording apparatus performs a write strategy (WS) study before recording user data to a user data area of a mounted optical disk. The WS study is performed to obtain an optimal WS. In order to improve a data recording performance, the WS study precedes a user data recording process and user data is recorded according to the optimal WS.
The WS study is performed in a test recording area of an optical disk. The test recording area of recording area is provided in the optical disk and dedicated to the WS study. Once the test recording area is used for a test recording, it cannot be again used for a test recording. That is, the WS study is performed on a unused point of the test recording area that has never been used for a test recording.
On the other hand, an optical disk has a user data area that enables user data to be recorded several times. Such an optical disk is called a rewritable optical disk. Like the general optical disk, the rewritable optical disk has a test recording area to perform a WS study and the WS is performed on an unused point of test recording area that has never been used for a test recording. However, since the WS study to obtain an optimal WS is performed in the test recording area that has never been used for a data recording, the obtained WS would not be appropriate for the case that user data is recorded to a user data area that has been used several times for a data recording.
That is, there is a difference between medium characteristics of the user data area that has been used several times for a data recording and the test recording area that has never been used for a data recording. This difference results from changes in the medium characteristic of the user data area caused by the multiple recording operations. Therefore, if the WS is obtained by performing the WS study in the test recording area, it may not suitable for the case that user data is recorded to the user data area that has been used several times for the data recording. This is more problematic as the number of data rewriting operations increases.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, aspects of the present invention provide a method of optimizing a write strategy (WS) by performing a WS study in a recording information area which is similar to a user data recording point in a medium characteristic, and an optical recording apparatus using the same.
An aspect of the invention is achieved by providing a method of optimizing a write strategy (WS) including determining a condition of a recording point of a user data area of a rewritable optical disk, where user data is to be recorded at the recording point, determining a part of a recording information area where recording information about the user data is recorded as a WS study area to perform a WS study, based on the determined condition of the recording point, and obtaining an optimal WS by performing the WS study in the determined WS study area.
According to an aspect of the invention, the determining the condition of the recording point comprises determining a medium characteristic of the recording point, and the determining the WS study area comprises determining a certain area of the recording information area that has a medium characteristic similar to that of the recording point as the WS study area.
According to an aspect of the invention, the determining the condition of the recording point comprises determining a number of recording operations performed at the recording point, and the determining the WS study area comprises determining a certain area of the recording information area as the WS study area based on the determined number of recording operations.
According to an aspect of the invention, the determining the WS study area comprises determining an area having blocks of the recording information area where recording operations occur a number of times closest to the number of the recording operations performed at the recording point to be the WS study area.
According to an aspect of the invention, if the number of recording operations performed at the recording point is less than a predetermined number, the determining the WS study area is skipped, and an optimal WS is obtained by performing a WS study in a test recording area of the optical disk.
According to an aspect of the invention, the method further includes restricting a number of recording information recording operations performed in blocks of the recording information area to a predetermined number.
An aspect of the present invention includes an optical recording apparatus including a condition determination unit to determine a condition of a recording point of a user data area of a rewritable optical disk, where user data is being recorded at the recording point, a WS study area determination unit to determine a part of a recording information area where a recording information about the user data is recorded as a WS study area to perform a WS study, based on the determined condition of the recording point, and a controller to obtain an optimal WS by performing the WS study in the determined WS study area.
According to an aspect of the invention, the condition determination unit determines a medium characteristic of the recording point, and the WS study area determination unit determines a certain area of the recording information area that has a medium characteristic similar to that of the recording point as the WS study area.
According to an aspect of the invention, the condition determination unit determines a number of recording operations performed at the recording point, and the WS study area determination unit determines a certain area of the recording information area to be the WS study area based on the determined number of recording operations.
According to an aspect of the invention, the WS study area determination unit selects an area having blocks of the recording information area where recording operations occur a number of times closest to the number of the recording operations performed at the recording point as the WS study area.
According to an aspect of the invention, if the number of recording operations performed at the recording point is less than a predetermined number, the WS study area determination unit skips the selection of the WS study area and obtains an optimal WS by performing a WS study in a test recording area of the optical disk.
According to an aspect of the invention, the controller restricts a number of recording information recording operations performed in blocks of the recording information area to a predetermined number.
Additional aspects and/or advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and/or other advantages and aspects of the present invention will become apparent and more readily appreciated from the following description of the embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings of which:
FIG. 1 is a view illustrating a format of a rewritable optical disk applicable to an aspect of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an optical recording apparatus which optimizes a WS by performing a WS study in a recording information area having a similar medium characteristic to that of a user data recording point according to an embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 3 is a view illustrating recording information blocks showing their respective maximum number of recording information recording operations; and
FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a method of optimizing a WS by performing a WS study in a recording information area having a similar medium characteristic to that of a user data recording point according to an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

Hereinafter, aspects of the present invention will now be described in greater detail, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to the like elements throughout. The embodiments are described below in order to explain the present invention by referring to the figures.
FIG. 1 is a view illustrating a format of a rewritable optical disk applicable to an aspect of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 1, a rewritable optical disk (referred to as “an optical disk”, hereinbelow) has an inner drive area (IDA 100), a lead in area (LIA 200), a user data area (UDA 300), a lead out area (LOA 400), and an outer driver area (ODA 500) from the inner side to the outer side. The UDA 300 stores user data (UD), such as audio/video (AV) data or other data.
The IDA 100, LIA 200, LOA 400 and ODA 500 record thereto data about managing, reproducing and recording operations of the optical disk. The IDA 100 has a test area (TA) 600 and a recording information area (RIA 700). The TA 600 is used for a write strategy (WS) study and the RIA 700 records recording information (RI) about the user data recorded to the UDA 300. The RIA 700 includes a plurality of recording information blocks 750 (RIBs) (first to N-th RIBs). While described as including recording information blocks 750 in the shown example, it is understood that the RIA 700 can include other information, blocks, and/or areas according to other aspects of the invention.
The recording of recording information is performed in parallel with the recording of the user data. To be specific, if a predetermined amount of the user data is recorded to the UDA 300, information about the currently recorded user data is initially recorded to the RIB 750 as recording information. After that, if a predetermined amount of user data is additionally recorded to the UDA 300, information previously recorded to the RIB 750 is updated with the additionally recorded user data. That is, the recording information continues to be updated during the process of recording the user data.
The recording information is information about the recorded user data. Thus, the recording information recorded in the RIB 750 plays an important role in reproducing the Recorded user data. Therefore, if the user data recording is normally performed but the ‘RI initial recording or rewriting’ (referred to as ‘RI recording’ hereinafter) is not normally performed, it is impossible to reproduce the user data. Accordingly, if the recording information recording is completed, it has to be determined whether the recording information recording has been normally performed. If the recording information recording has been normally performed on a certain RIB 750, the certain RIB 750 continues to perform the RIB recording. On the other hand, if the recording information recording has been abnormally performed on a certain RIB 750, the certain RIB 750 is not used for the recording information recording anymore, and the next recording information is scheduled to perform the recording information recording.
For example, if a recording information recording is performed on a first RIB 750 for existing recording operations, but is determined to be abnormal, the second RIB 750 is scheduled to perform the recording information recording when recording the present and additional recording operations.
Until now, the format of the optical disk applicable to an aspect of the present invention was described. Examples of the optical disk are a rewritable compact disk (CD), a digital video disk (DVD), a Blue-Ray disk (BD), an Advanced Optical Discs (AODs) and an HD-DVD. However, it is understood that other types of rewritable optical disk can be used in embodying the present invention.
Similarly, it is understood that other terms may be used for the respective areas of the optical disk, depending on the kinds of optical disks. For example, although the RIA 700 is used in the context of the DVD-RW shown in FIG. 1, there are corresponding other terms such as ‘table of contents zone’ (TCZ) and ‘disk identification zone’ (DIZ) used for the DVD+RW and the DVD-RAM, respectively. Hereinbelow, while described in terms of the RIA 700, it is understood that aspects of the invention can be similarly applied to the TCZ and DIZ.
Also, although the term test area (TA) 110 is used in the example shown in FIG. 1, there are corresponding other terms, such as ‘power calibration area’ (PCA) and ‘inner disk test zone’ (IDTZ), used for the DVD-RW and DVD+RW, respectively. Hereinbelow, while described in terms of the TA 110, it is understood that aspects of the invention can be similarly applied to the PCA and IDTZ.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an optical recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. While referred to as a recording apparatus and while not required in all aspects, it is understood that the apparatus can further perform reproducing. The optical recording apparatus performs a WS study in the RIA 700 and thereby optimizes a WS. More specifically, the optical recording apparatus optimizes the WS by performing the WS study in RIBs 750 of the RIA 700 that are not expected to be used in recording the user data and have similar medium characteristics to that of a user data recording point. Herein, the ‘UD recording point’ is a point provided in the UDA 300 to which the user data is to be recorded in a next recording operation.
As shown in FIG. 2, the optical recording apparatus comprises a pickup (PU) 110, a pickup driving unit 120, a recording process unit 130, a reproducing process unit 140, a RIA analysis unit 150, a UDA condition determination unit 160, a WS study area determination unit 170, a control unit 180, and a memory 190. The pickup 110 is driven by the pickup driving unit 120 to read out data from a mounted optical disk D and output electric signals corresponding to the read data to the reproducing process unit 140. The reproducing process unit 140 processes the electric signals received from the pickup 110. The pickup 110 records user data signal-processed by the recording process unit 130 to the optical disk D.
The RIA analysis unit 150 analyzes the RIA 700 based on the signals output from the reproducing process unit 140 and outputs the result of the analysis. The UDA condition determination unit 160 determines a condition of the UD recording point of the UDA 300 based on the result of analyzing the RIA 700 output from the RIA analysis unit 150. The WS study area determination unit 170 determines a part of the RIA 700 as a WS study area based on the result of determining by the UDA condition determination unit 160 and the result of analyzing the RIA 700 by the RIA analysis unit 150. The control unit 180 controls the pickup driving unit 120 such that the pickup 110 performs the WS study in determined WS study area determined by the WS study area determination unit 170 or a TA 600, and stores the WS obtained by performing the WS study to the memory 190. The controller 180 controls the pickup driving unit 120 such that the user data is recorded according to the WS stored in the memory 190.
The controller 180 restricts the number of recording information recording operations performed with respect to the RIBs of the RIA. That is, the controller 180 controls the pickup driving unit 120 such that the pickup 110 performs the recording information recording operations with respect to the RIB 750 a predetermined number of times. Therefore, when the number of recording information recording operation reaches a predetermined number, even if it is determined that the recording information recording operation is normally performed in a certain RIB, the next recording operation is performed in the next RIB of the certain RIB. For example, it is assumed that the number of recording information recording operations performed in the first RIB 750 is restricted to 10 times. Even if the 10^threcording information recording operation is normally performed in the first RIB 750, a recording information recording operations after 10^threcording information recording operation is performed in the second RIB 750. As such, the restricted number of recording operations is managed at an individual RIB level. The predetermined numbers for the RIBs 750 can be stored on a region of the optical disk D according to an aspect of the invention, or can be determined using a specification with which the optical disk D is compatible and is thus stored in the controller 180. Further, while not required in all aspects, the condition of the recording point can be determined by the UDA condition determination unit 160 where a number of times the recording point has been rewritten is stored on a region of the optical disk D, can be otherwise determined directly from the recording point or other regions of the optical disk D, or can be indicated through input.
According to an embodiment of the invention, the restricted number of recording information recording operations is different depending on the RIB 750 in a predetermined section of RIBs 750 such that the restriction is managed at a section level. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, the first to the fifth RIBs 750 are organized as a first section I₁, the sixth to the tenth RIBs 750 are organized as a second section I₂, and the eleventh to fifteenth RIBs 750 are organized as a third section I₃. However, it is understood that other numbers of sections can be used and that each section need not have equal numbers of RIBs 750.
While not restricted thereto, in the example shown in FIG. 3, the first section I₁is restricted to 10 times as the number of recording information recording operations. The second section I₂is restricted to 20 times as the number of recording information recording operations. The third section I₃is the restricted to 30 times as the number of recording information recording operations. The first section I₁has a medium characteristic similar to that of a user data recording point where user data recording operations occur 10 times. The second section I₂has a medium characteristic similar to a user data recording point where user data recording operations have occurred 20 times. The third section I₃has a medium characteristic similar to a user data recording point where user data recording operations have occurred 30 times. However, it is understood that, while shown as having linear increases by amounts of 10 for each section, the increases in the predetermined amounts can be by other increments and can be non-linear increments so as to most closely model the behavior of the recording medium as a function of increasing numbers of rewrites.
Hereinafter, a method of for optimizing a WS by performing a WS study in a RIA 700 having a medium characteristic similar to that of a user data recording point according to an embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to a flow chart in FIG. 4. Referring to FIG. 4, the controller 180 stores a first WS that is obtained based on a WS study performed in a test area 600 of the optical disk D at operation S210. More specifically, the operation S210 includes the control unit 180 controlling the pickup driving unit 120 such that the pickup 110 performs a WS study on the test area 600 of the optical disk D, and storing the first WS obtained based on the WS study to the memory 190.
The UDA condition determination unit 160 determines a condition of the user data recording point based on the result of analyzing the RIA 700 at operation S220. More specifically, at the operation S220, the UDA condition determination unit 160 determines the number of user data recording operations performed in the user data recording point based on the information about the number of user data recording operations performed in the user data recording point, which is output as the result of analyzing the RIA 700 by the RIA analysis unit 150. While not required in all aspects, the information on the information about the number of user data recording operations performed in the user data recording point, can be stored in the recording information, elsewhere in the RIA 700, or elsewhere in the optical disk D.
The WS study area determination unit 170 determines a part of the RIA 700 as a WS study area based on the condition of the user data recording point at operation S230. The WS study area determination unit 170 determines RIBs 750 of the RIA 700 that have medium characteristics similar to that of the user data recording point as the WS study area. According to an aspect of the invention, in operation S230, it is assumed that the first to the fifth RIBs 750 of the first section I₁correspond to 10 recording information recording operations, the sixth to tenth RIBs 750 of the second section I₂correspond to 20 recording information recording operations, and the eleventh to the fifteenth RIBs 750 of the third section I₃correspond to 30 recording information recording operations. While described in terms of three sections corresponding to different numbers of recording operations which increase by ten, it is understood that other numbers can be used and that the numbers need not increase evenly or linearly so as to match the recording properties of the storage medium as a function of recording overwrite operations.
In the shown example, if user data recording operations occurred 10 times in a certain user data recording point, the WS study area determination unit 170 selects the first section I₁as having a medium characteristic similar to the user data recording point. Accordingly, the first section I₁is selected as the write study area, and the WS study is performed in the first section I₁to obtain a WS suitable for the user data recorded to the user data recording point. Therefore, the first section I₁is determined as the WS study area at operation S230.
If user data recording operations occurred 20 times in a certain user data recording point, it is the second section I₂that has a medium characteristic similar to that of the user data recording point. Accordingly, the WS study area determination unit 170 selects the write study area to be the second section I₂at operation S230. If user data recording operations occurred 30 times in a certain user data recording point, it is the third section I₃that has a medium characteristic similar to that of the user data recording point. Accordingly, the WS study area determination unit 170 selects the write study area to be the third section I₃at operation S230.
If there is no section where the recording information recording operations occurred the same number of times as the user data recording operations, the WS study area determination unit 170 selects the write study area to be a section where the recording information recording operations occur a closest number of times is determined as the WS study area. For example, if the number of the user data recording operations is 12, the first section I₁having the number of recording information recording operations (“10 times”) closest to 12 times is set as the WS study area. However, it is understood that if the behavior of the user data area 300 for recording operations in excess of 10 is closer to that of 20 recording operations as opposed to 10 times, it is understood that the second section I₂can be used as the WS study area even if the number of recording operations is numerically closer to 10. As such, in other aspects of the invention, the selected WS study area need not correspond to the section with the numerically closest number of recording operations.
After the operation S230, the controller 180 stores the WS obtained by performing the WS study in the WS study area determined at the operation S230, thereby updating the previously stored WS. Since the operation S240 is substantially similar to the operation S210, its detailed description will be omitted.
The controller 180 controls the user data to be recorded according to the updated WS at operation S250. More specifically, the controller 180 controls the pickup driving unit 120 such that the pickup 110 records the user data according to the WS updated in the memory 190. If the number of the user data recording operations is very low, for example, 1-2 times, the test area 600 has a medium characteristic similar to that of the user data recording point. In this case, it is preferable, but not required, to perform the WS study in the test area 600 to obtain an optimal WS. Thus, the operation S240 is omitted and the user data is recorded according to the WS stored at the operation S210. However, it is understood that, in other embodiments, the controller 180 can still select the WS study area to be a corresponding unused RIB 750 instead of or in addition to the test area 600 and thus not skip the operation S210.
As described above, an optimal WS is obtained by performing the WS study in the RIB having the medium characteristic most similar to that of the user data recording point. Although in this embodiment the same number of recording information recording operations is set for one section having five RIBs, this should not be considered as limiting. The number of RIBs may be differently set. Also, although in this embodiment the number of recording information recording operations is set as ‘10 times’, ‘20 times’ and ‘30 times’, the number of recording information recording operations may be differently set.
As described above, it is possible to obtain an optimal WS by performing the WS study in the recording information area user data area having the medium characteristic similar to that of the user data recording point. Accordingly, it is possible to obtain an optimal WS with respect to the UDA that has been used several times for a user data recording and to record the user data according to the obtained optimal WS. Since the WS study area is determined according to the number of the user data recording operations to the user data recording point, it is possible to obtain an optimal WS in any case that the user data is several times rewritten to the user data recording point.
The foregoing embodiments, aspects and advantages are merely exemplary and are not to be construed as limiting the present invention. The present teaching can be readily applied to other types of apparatuses. Also, the description of the embodiments of the present invention is intended to be illustrative, and not to limit the scope of the claims or equivalents thereof, and many alternatives, modifications, and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art.

Claims

1. A method of optimizing a write strategy (WS) on a rewritable optical disk having a user data area and a recording information area which stores recording information about existing user data recorded in the user data area, comprising:

determining a condition of a recording point of the user data area to which additional user data is to be written;

determining a part of the recording information area to be a WS study area to perform a WS study based on the determined condition of the recording point; and

obtaining an optimal WS by performing the WS study in the determined WS study area.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the determining the condition of the recording point comprises determining a medium characteristic of the recording point, and the determining the WS study area comprises determining the WS study area to be a certain area of the recording information area that has a medium characteristic similar to the medium characteristic of the recording point.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the determining the condition of the recording point comprises determining a number of recording operations performed at the recording point, and the determining the WS study area comprises determining the WS study area to be a certain area of the recording information area based on the determined number of recording operations.

4. The method as claimed in claim 3, wherein the determining the WS study area comprises determining the WS study area to be an area of blocks of the recording information area where recording operations occur a number of times closest to the determined number of the recording operations performed at the recording point.

5. The method as claimed in claim 4, wherein, if the number of recording operations performed at the recording point is less than a predetermined number, the determining the WS study area comprises performing the WS study in a test recording area of the optical disk instead of the recording information area.

6. The method as claimed in claim 4, further comprising restricting a number of recording information recording operations performed in blocks of the recording information area to a predetermined number.

7. An optical recording apparatus to transfer data with respect to a rewritable optical disk having a user data area including existing user data and a recording information area which stores recording information about the existing user data, comprising:

a condition determination unit to determine a condition of a recording point of the user data area at which user data is to be written;

a WS study area determination unit to determine a part of the recording information area as a WS study area to perform a WS study, based on the determined condition of the recording point; and

a controller to obtain an optimal WS by performing the WS study in the determined WS study area.

8. The optical recording apparatus as claimed in claim 7, wherein the condition determination unit determines a medium characteristic of the recording point, and the WS study area determination unit determines the WS study area to be a certain area of the recording information area that has a medium characteristic similar to that of the recording point.

9. The optical recording apparatus as claimed in claim 7, wherein the condition determination unit determines a number of recording operations performed at the recording point, and the WS study area determination unit determines the WS study area to be a certain area of the recording information area based on the determined number of recording operations.

10. The optical recording apparatus as claimed in claim 7, wherein the WS study area determination unit determines the WS study area to be an area includes blocks of the recording information area where recording operations occur a number of times closest to the determined number of the recording operations performed at the recording point.

11. The optical recording apparatus as claimed in claim 10, wherein, if the determined number of recording operations performed at the recording point is less than a predetermined number, the WS study area determination unit determines the WS study area to be a test recording area of the optical disk instead of the recording information area.

12. The optical recording apparatus as claimed in claim 7, wherein the controller restricts a number of recording information recording operations performed in blocks of the recording information area to a predetermined number.

13. A method of optimizing a write strategy on a rewritable optical disk having a first region and a second region which stores information about existing data recorded in the first region, comprising:

based upon a determined condition of a recording point of the first region, selecting a write strategy study area from one of a plurality of areas in the second region according to which of the areas most closely matches the determined condition of the recording point; and

performing a write strategy on the selected write strategy study area to determine an optimal write strategy for recording data at the recording point.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the selecting the write strategy study area further comprises:

determining a number of times recording operations have been previously performed at the recording point to determine the condition of the recording point, and

selecting a first one of the areas of the second region to be the write strategy study area if the determined number of times is the predetermined number, and selecting a second one of the areas other than the first area if the determined number of times is other than the predetermined number.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the selecting the write strategy study area further comprises:

selecting the second area if the determined number of times is another predetermined number, and

if the determined number of times is other than both the predetermined number and the another predetermined number, selecting the one of the first and second areas according to which of the predetermined number and the another predetermined number is closest to the determined number of times.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein:

the second region includes a test area used to perform a write strategy for an initial recording, and a recording information area other than the test area which stores recording information for the existing data,

the test area includes the first area, and

the recording information area includes the second area.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein:

the test area does not include the first and second areas, and

the recording information area includes the first and second areas.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein:

the second region includes a test area used to perform a write strategy for an initial recording, and a recording information area other than the test area which stores recording information for the existing data, and

the recording information area includes the one of the plurality of areas selected to be the write strategy study area.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein:

the determined condition corresponds to a number of times recording operations have been previously performed at the recording point,

the recording information area includes blocks and stores recording information recorded for each recording operation performed in the first region,

each block has a corresponding limit as to a number of times the recording information can be rewritten in the block such that each block has a different predetermined limit, and

the selected one of the plurality of areas is the one of the blocks having the corresponding predetermined limit closest to the number of times recording operations having been performed at the recording point.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein each block comprises a plurality of recording information blocks in which the recording information is stored.

21. The method of claim 13, wherein:

each of the areas of the second region corresponds to a different condition of the first region after a corresponding number of rewriting operations, and

the selected one of the plurality of areas is the one area having the corresponding condition closest to the determined condition of the recording point.

22. An optical apparatus to transfer data with respect to a rewritable optical disk having a first region including existing data and a second region which stores information about the existing data, the apparatus comprising:

a write strategy study area selection unit to select one of a plurality of parts of the second region to be a write strategy study area based on a determined condition of a recording point of the first region; and

a controller to develop an optimal write strategy by performing a write strategy study in the determined write strategy study area, and to transfer data with respect to the first region according to the developed optimal write strategy.

23. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the write strategy study area selection unit determines the condition according to a number of times recording operations have been previously performed at the recording point, selects a first one of the parts of the second region to be the write strategy study area if the determined number of times is a predetermined number, and selects a second one of the parts other than the first part if the determined number of times is the predetermined number.

24. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the write strategy study area selection unit:

selects the second part if the determined number of times is another predetermined number, and

if the determined number of times is other than both the predetermined number and the another predetermined number, selects the one of the first and second parts according to which of the predetermined number and the another predetermined number is closest to the determined number of times.

25. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein:

the second region includes a test area used to perform a write strategy for an initial recording, and a recording information area other than the test area which stores recording information for the existing data recorded in the first region,

the write strategy study area selection unit selects the first part from the test area to be the write strategy study area if the determined number of times is less than the predetermined number, and

the write strategy study area selection unit selects the second part from the recording information area to be the write strategy study area if the determined number of times is greater than the predetermined number.

26. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein:

the write strategy study area selection unit selects the first part from the recording information area to be the write strategy study area if the determined number of times is less than the predetermined number,

the write strategy study area selection unit selects the second part from the recording information area to be the write strategy study area if the determined number of times is greater than the predetermined number, and

the test area does not include the first and second parts.

27. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein:

the second region includes a test area used to perform a write strategy for an initial recording, and a recording information area other than the test area which stores recording information for the existing data recorded in the first region, and

the write strategy study area selection unit selects one of the plurality of parts from within the recording information area.

28. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein:

the write strategy study area selection unit determines a number of times recording operations have been previously performed at the recording point, and selects one of the blocks having the corresponding predetermined limit closest to the determined number of times.

29. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein each block comprises a plurality of recording information blocks in which the recording information is stored.

30. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein the controller retrieves the predetermined limits from an area of the optical recording medium storing information on the predetermined limits of the blocks.

31. A rewriteable recording medium including:

a first region including existing data;

a second region other than first region which stores information about the existing data; and

a third region which stores write strategy study area determination information used by an apparatus to select one of a plurality of parts of the second region which most closely approximates a condition of a recording point of the first region to which additional data is to be written to be a write strategy study area.

32. The rewriteable recording medium of claim 31, wherein:

the second region includes blocks for use in storing the information,

the write strategy study area determination information includes limit information indicating to the apparatus, for each block, a corresponding limit as to a number of times the recording information can be rewritten in the block such that each block has a different predetermined limit, and

the limit information is used by the apparatus to select one of the blocks to be the write study area according to a determined number of times recording operations have been previously performed at the recording point.