A recording apparatus includes a plurality of ECC units operating selectively and independently. A medium access unit reads data from a recording medium in a read mode, and writes data from a host device to the recording medium in a write mode. The data read out from the recording medium contains a reproduction data and a medium reproduction check symbol added to the reproduction data, and data written contains a recording data and a medium recording check symbol added to the recording data. The reproduction data or the recording data is stored in a buffer. In a read mode, the reproduction data from the medium access unit is transferred to the host device through the buffer and in the write mode, the recording data from the host device is transferred to the medium access unit through the buffer. Each ECC units detects any error of the data stored based on the check symbol added to the data stored in the buffer during the transfer operation, corrects the data stored when the error is detected, and generates a check symbol from the data transferred. The check symbol generated is transferred to a destination of transfer after the data to be transferred.