Provided are a device and a method for identifying whether or not an information recording medium is a pre-formatted disc, and an information recording medium as a pre-formatted disc. In an information processing device that executes recording of data onto a disc, such as a video camera, a process of identifying which one of the following discs a loaded disc is, that is, whether the loaded disc is (a) an unrecorded blank disc, (b) a pre-formatted disc to which a padding process has been applied, or (c) an already-recorded disc, is executed as a process of recognizing the loaded disc. With this configuration, a padding process that needs to be executed during a formatting process or finalizing process in conventional devices becomes unnecessary, thus enabling quick processing without making the user wait during the start of recording or finalizing process.