In this paper, we propose a new method which estimates the initial position of a PM synchronous motor (PMSM) using an incremental ecoder. in cremental encoders are widely used in detecting rotor position since they are inexpensive. At starting procedure, however, the incremental encoders cannot give the information of the absolute rotor position. Hence, additional absolue encoder, which has $60^{circ}C$ resolutio electrically, and signal lines called U, V, W, have been used in practical systems for starting injection of a high frequency test current. It does not require any additional information such as U, V, W signals for starting procedure and allows for cheap and simple implementation. Experimental results show that the proposed method can estimate the initial rotor positon with higher accuracy than the conventional method using U, V, W signals.