Recording medium for storing attribute information on basic recording unit and method of identifying data using the attribute information

Abstract

A recording medium for storing attribute information in a basic recording unit and a method of identifying data using the attribute information. On the recording medium, the attributes such as sector format, tracking method, reflectivity, area type, data type, and the number of layers of a sector are stored. For digital versatile disc-recordables (DVD-Rs), digital versatile disc-rewritables (DVD-RWs) and digital versatile disc-random access memory (DVD-RAM) on which data can be recorded and reproduced a multitude of times, information is stored relating to the attributes of a sector, which is a basic recording unit. In particular, information relating to data type, which represents whether the data is rewritable data, read-only, or linking data, can be stored in data identification data (DID) areas or identification data (ID) areas, which is positioned at the fronts of the sectors for representing all information relating thereto. Using combinations of the attribute information, it can be determined whether the data is linking data, and if not linking data, whether the data is read only or rewritable. Accordingly, consistency among optical recording media of the DVD-type discs is maintained.