In recent years, there have been developed and widely used recording devices that record contents such as video and audio information in recording media, which include disk media such as DVDs and hard disks, and semiconductor memories having a large storage space.
As measures against the case that there is insufficient free space on a recording medium in which a content is being recorded, such a recording device uses a method for displaying an error message or a method for deleting unnecessary contents, for example.
According to the method for displaying an error message, when a free space of a recording medium is insufficient, the recording device displays an error message representing that the free space is insufficient to a user. The recording device can continue to record the content by the user preparing an additional recording space. For example, the user may replace the recording medium that does not have a sufficient free space with another recording medium having a sufficient free space. Alternatively, the user may delete any of contents that have ever been recorded in the recording medium that does not have the sufficient space. However, according to this method, the user has to interrupt recording of the content while the user replaces the recording medium or deletes any of the recorded contents. Therefore, it is impossible to record all parts of the content.
The Patent Document 1 discloses a method for securing a free space in case of free space insufficiency. When a size of a free space of a recording medium in which a content is being recorded is no more than a predetermined size, a recording device automatically deletes any predetermined content among contents that have ever been recorded in the recording medium to secure a free space. There are various methods for automatically deleting the predetermined content. For example, a method for deleting an old content among recorded contents and a method for deleting a beginning part and an end part of any of the recorded contents are used. However, according to these methods, a content that the user does not hope to delete might be deleted from the recording medium.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2004-303368