Patent ID: 8578142

Claim:
A system for shared data storage on an electronic device, the system comprising: a memory; a processor; an operating system configured to execute on the electronic device, the operating system residing in the memory for execution by the processor; a preboot application configured to execute on the electronic device, the preboot application residing in the memory for execution by the processor; and a virtual drive, wherein: the operating system is configured to mount the virtual drive by writing a data file to the memory; the operating system is further configured to create a memory map, the map associated with a location of the data file in the memory; a device driver configured to execute on the electronic device, the device driver residing in the memory for execution within the operating system by the processor; and wherein access to the virtual drive is arbitrated at least by the device driver; a plurality of data requesting applications configured to execute on the electronic device, the plurality of data requesting applications residing in the memory for execution within the operating system by the processor, and wherein the plurality of data requesting applications access the virtual drive via the device driver; the preboot application is configured to apply the memory map to mount the virtual drive; and the virtual drive is bit shared between the operating system and the preboot application.