A recording and reproduction apparatus using a plurality of generations of optical
recording media and an optical recording medium used in such a recording and reproduction
apparatus, wherein the optical recording medium comprises first and second recording
areas, the first recording area is divided into a plurality of zones, each of the
plurality of zones is divided into a plurality of divided areas of one type among
a plurality of types set in advance, the plurality of divided areas are assigned
addresses and have fixed recording capacities, and identification information indicating
the one type is recorded in the second recording area. The apparatus focuses a
laser beam on the second recording area to read the identification information
and records information on the first recording area or detects recorded information
of the first recording area based on the identification information. The optical
recording medium is for example a magneto-optical disk.
