Patent ID: 7143261

Claim:
An access apparatus for performing file access on a semiconductor memory card that has a memory area comprising of a plurality of sectors, by managing data in each group of 2 j sectors (j being 0 or a positive integer) as a cluster, and managing one or more clusters as a file, each group of 2 i consecutive sectors in the memory area forming a block (i being 0 or a positive integer), a block being a smallest unit on which data erasure can be performed, the access apparatus comprising: a calculation unit operable to calculate a size of volume management information based on a number of clusters in the memory area that are to be managed, the volume management information including a master boot record, a partition table, partition boot sector information, and a file allocation table that indicates, for each file, links between clusters corresponding to the file; a reserving unit operable to reserve (1) a first area for recording the volume management information, and (2) a second area for recording user data, the first area being formed from blocks that are each larger in size than the calculated size of the volume management information, and the second area being formed from blocks following the first area; and a recording unit operable to record volume management information in the first area, and user data in the second area, wherein the recording unit operable to record the master boot record and the partition table in a first sector of a first block in the first area, skip a predetermined number of sectors and then record the partition boot sector information and the file allocation table, in order that a size of the first area is an integral multiple of the block size.