Patent ID: 7778989

Claim:
A file management apparatus comprising: a first non-volatile storage medium that holds a metadata group including a plurality of pieces of metadata corresponding to a predetermined file type; a detector that detects a file of the predetermined file type; a metadata guide unit that introduces, as selection options, the plurality of pieces of metadata included in the metadata group corresponding to the predetermined file type of the detected file; a metadata selection unit that accepts selection of at least one piece of the introduced metadata; a file guide unit that introduces detected files as selection options; a file selection unit that accepts selection of at least one of the introduced files; a management data storage unit that stores the selected metadata in association with the detected file in a second non-volatile storage medium in which the detected file is stored; a copy unit that copies the selected file to the second non-volatile storage medium; a print control unit that controls printing on a label of the second non-volatile storage medium; a judgment unit that judges whether a separate copy is necessary; and a guide unit that displays a message to allow users to put the second non-volatile storage medium on a tray; wherein the management data storage unit stores the selected metadata in the second non-volatile storage medium that is inserted in a disk slot; the copy unit that separates target files and copies target files to a plurality of the second non-volatile storage media when the judgment unit judges that a separate copy is necessary; the print control unit prints an image based on the target files copied to the second nonvolatile storage medium; the judgment unit judges that a separate copy is necessary when the second non-volatile storage medium has insufficient capacity, or that the separate copy is unnecessary when the second non-volatile storage medium has sufficient capacity; and the guide unit displays the message when the judgment unit judges that the separate copy is necessary and a copy process is interrupted after the copy process is completed to one of the second non-volatile storage media or to all of the target files; and wherein the file guide unit introduces all the detected files as selection options in the case that the files are to be introduced as selection options for the first time after the file management apparatus has entered a predetermined mode, and, in the case that the files are to be introduced as selection options for the second time and onward after the file management apparatus has entered the predetermined mode, the file guide unit introduces a file that has not been stored in the second non-volatile storage medium after the file management apparatus has entered the predetermined mode as a selection option.