Patent ID: 7853944

Claim:
A method for managing firmware of a removable media device, the method comprising: determining, via an interface device, if the removable media device is connected to a computer; detecting, by the computer, a key value of the removable media device when the determining step determines the removable media device is connected to the computer; checking, by the computer, whether or not the detected key value is stored on the computer; if the key value is stored on the computer, performing the steps of: searching, by the computer, a table stored on the computer for the key value of the removable media device; identifying, by the computer, a version of firmware stored on a server connected to the computer that is later than a version of firmware on the removable media device, wherein information about the version of the firmware on the removable media device is stored as a separate file in a portion of a memory of the removable media device; and installing, by the computer, the firmware stored on the server whose version is later than the version of the firmware on the removable media device onto the removable media device, wherein the installing step further includes determining if the optimum version corresponds with the version of the firmware stored on the server, first deleting the firmware on the removable media device, installing the firmware stored on the server onto the removable media device, and restarting the removable media device using the newly installed firmware, if the optimum version does not correspond with the later version of the firmware stored on the server and the later version is not installed onto the removable media device.