Patent ID: 8019908

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving data at a system controller of a removable cartridge storage device; initiating first and second cartridge interface processes, wherein: the first cartridge interface process is communicatively coupled to a first portable data cartridge, the second cartridge interface process is communicatively coupled to a second portable data cartridge, and each of the first and second portable data cartridges is removably coupled with the removable cartridge storage device; transferring, with the first cartridge interface process, the data to the first portable data cartridge; switching from transferring the data to the first portable data cartridge to transferring, with the second cartridge interface process, the data to the second portable data cartridge; and receiving the data at the first portable data cartridge from the first cartridge interface process and processing the data for storage at the first portable data cartridge; receiving the data at the second portable data cartridge from the second cartridge interface process and processing the data for storage at the second portable data cartridge wherein: the system controller switches from transferring the data to the first portable data cartridge to transferring the data to the second portable data cartridge prior to the data being completely processed at the first portable data cartridge, and the first portable data cartridge is processing the received data simultaneously while the second portable data cartridge is processing the received data; receiving, at the removable cartridge storage device, commands and the data; and processing, with the system controller, the commands; wherein: the removable cartridge storage device comprises a housing at least partially containing at least the system controller, and first and second cartridge holders, the housing is configured to receive the first and second portable data cartridges; and upon receiving the data at the first and second portable data cartridges, each of the first and second portable data cartridges can be removed independently from the removable cartridge storage device and later used independently to retrieve the data.