A recording device which records data onto a recording medium includes a nonvolatile memory storing and holding data on a free capacity of the recording medium, and a control unit controlling the data recording. The control unit determines the free-capacity data stored in the nonvolatile memory based on the total capacity of the recording medium when power is turned on. When the determination result indicates that a value of the free-capacity data stored in the nonvolatile memory does not exceed a value of the total capacity of the recording medium, the control unit records the data onto the recording medium with reference to the free-capacity data. When the power is turned off, the control unit updates the free-capacity data so as to reduce the value of the free-capacity data by as much as an amount of the data recorded onto the recording medium.