Method of searching for a boundary position between a recorded region and an unrecorded region of a recording disc, and information recording apparatus

Abstract

A boundary position search method and an information recording apparatus are provided for rapidly transferring a recording/reproducing head to a boundary position between a recorded region and an unrecorded region of a recording disc when new information data is recorded on the recording disc. In response to a recording start instruction, the recording/reproducing head is first forcedly transferred in a radial direction of the disc, while confirmation is made as to the presence or absence of an RF signal carrying an information signal in a read signal. A slider unit is controlled to stop a transfer operation of the recording/reproducing head when a transition is detected from a state in which an RF signal exists to a state in which no RF signal exists. Meanwhile, the distance from the position of the recording/reproducing head at the time of the transition from the state in which an RF signal exists to the state in which no RF signal exists to the position at which the recording/reproducing head is finally stopped is measured as an overrun distance. Then, a boundary position between a recorded region and an unrecorded region of the recording disc is found based on the overrun distance and stop position and then the slider unit is controlled to transfer the recording/reproducing head to the boundary position.