Abstract: A method, system and computer-readable medium for managing bad areas in flash memory. The flash memory is initialized by formatting the flash memory into a spare area and a data area with the spare area and the data area including a plurality of spare blocks and data blocks, respectively. In addition, spare blocks are grouped together forming a chunk. A working chunk map is created for storing format information and re-mapping information. The working chunk map includes a BBM header and a plurality of BBM entries that correspond to the spare blocks in each chunk. The working chunk map is written to one of the plurality of spare blocks in a chunk, designated as a copy chunk map. The working chunk map is also written to another one of the plurality of spare blocks in a chunk, designated as an original chunk map.