An apparatus, medium, and method for compensating for a defect, based on a discrimination of whether the defect is in a recorded or unrecorded area in an optical recording medium. A method for compensating for the defect includes at least operations of referring to a predetermined information area of a loaded disk to determine a disk state, referring to a predetermined area having a recording information to determine a positional information with respect to recorded areas and unrecorded areas, and storing the positional information, when it is determined that the disk has data stored therein, identifying a position where a defect is detected, referring to the positional information when the defect is detected while data is recorded and reproduced, and determining which of recorded or unrecorded areas corresponds to the position where the defect is detected, and carrying out a predetermined method for compensating the defect suitable for the corresponding area.