A predetermined number of erasable blocks positioned at a start of a
volume area in a semiconductor memory card are provided so as to include
volume management information. A user area following the volume
management information includes a plurality of clusters. A data length
NOM of an area from a master boot record & partition table sector to a
partition boot sector is determined so that the plurality of clusters in
the user area are not arranged so as to straddle erasable block
boundaries. Since cluster boundaries and erasable block boundaries in the
user area are aligned, there is no need to perform wasteful processing in
which two erasable blocks are erased to rewrite one cluster.