A restrictive multi-level-cell (MLC) flash memory prohibits regressive page-writes. When a regressive page-write is requested, an empty block having a low wear-level count is found, and data from the regressive page-write and data from pages stored in the old block are written to the empty block in page order. The old block is erased and recycled. A two-level look-up table is stored in volatile random-access memory (RAM). A logical page address from a host is divided by a modulo divider to generate a quotient and a remainder. The quotient is a logical block address that indexes a first-level look-up table to find a mapping entry with a physical block address that selects a row in a second-level look-up table. The remainder locates a column in the row in the second-level look-up table. If any page-valid bits above the column pointed to by the remainder are set, the write is regressive.