Patent ID: 8117355

Claim:
A data processing apparatus comprising: an operating system that performs a mounting and an unmounting of a removable external storage device; a plurality of application programs each configured to independently access the external storage device; and an external-storage-device monitoring unit that instructs the operating system, based on a request output from each of the plurality of application programs, to perform the mounting and the unmounting of the external storage device, wherein an unmounting request for the external storage device is output from at least one of the plurality of application programs, the unmounting request being independent of a user instruction, the plurality of application programs includes a first application program and a second application program, the external-storage-device monitoring unit determines whether a mounting request from the second application program has been received, in response to receiving an unmounting request from the first application program, the external-storage-device monitoring unit maintains the external storage device mounted, in response to a determination that the mounting request is received from the second application program, the external-storage-device monitoring unit performs the unmounting of the external storage device in response to a determination that the mounting request has not been received from the second application program, when the first application program and the second application program are engaged in the external storage device, the external storage-device monitoring unit maintains the external storage device mounted while the first application program is using the external storage device, in response to receiving an unmounting request from the second application program, and the external-storage-device monitoring unit is implemented as hardware or as a hardware and software combination.