Patent ID: 7111121
Filing Date: 2006-09-19
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A USB storage device capable of being attached to and detached from an external device controlled by a given operation system and provided at least with a disk drive driver, a USB mass storage class driver, and a USB host controller, wherein the USB storage device comprising: a flash memory having a first area configured with a disk format and a second area configured with a CD-ROM format; a USB interface that performs communication with the external device according to a USB protocol; and a controller that executes reading, writing and deleting of information to and from the storage through the USB interface; the controller includes a memory information storage that stores format type information of the first area and the second area respectively corresponding to logical unit number in order to make the USB mass storage class driver recognize the first area as a disk unit to and from which reading, writing and deleting of information can be executed and the second area as a CD-ROM unit for which only reading of information can be executed; the controller sends the format type information of the first area and the second area to the USB mass storage class driver in response to a command from the disk drive driver so that the USB mass storage class driver recognizes the USB storage device as a SCSI device having two logical units including the disk unit and the CD-ROM unit and the operation system recognizes the format type information of the first area and the second area and limits issuance of either of a command to write to and a command to delete from the second area; and the controller, in accordance with a command received from the external device and the format type information of the first area and the second area, executes reading, writing and deleting of information to and from the first area and executes only reading of information from the second area even though the controller receives either of a command to write to and a command to delete from the second area; and an application program, previously stored in the second area, is automatically executed when the USB storage device is attached to the external device on a condition that the application program is so designated in a root directory.