Disclosed are an apparatus and method for recycling areas of a data storage device by relocating data. In one embodiment, a method may comprise selecting a first storage area based on a quantity of obsolete data in the first storage area, moving valid data from the first storage area to a second storage area, and setting memory spaces corresponding to the first storage area as available memory for storing other data. Another embodiment may further comprise selecting a physical address-based move operation or a logical address-based move operation based on a number of sets of contiguous valid memory spaces in the first storage area, wherein the physical address-based move comprises moving data based on physical data addresses, and logical address-based moved comprises moving data based on logical block addresses.