Patent ID: 7139147

Claim:
A drive control apparatus that mounts a predetermined medium out of a plurality of media onto a predetermined drive unit out of a plurality of drive units, comprising: a receiving unit that receives, from an upper unit, an instruction to mount the predetermined medium onto the predetermined drive unit; a medium information storage unit that stores information indicating whether data stored in each of the media is encrypted; a drive information storage unit that stores information indicating whether each of the drive units corresponds to encrypted data; a match determining unit that determines whether a combination of a drive unit and a medium in an instruction from the upper unit is appropriate, wherein a combination of the drive unit and the medium both corresponding to encrypted data, and a combination of the drive unit and the medium both corresponding to unencrypted data are determined as appropriate; and a replying unit that replies to the upper unit that the predetermined drive unit cannot be used, if the match determining unit determines that the combination is inappropriate.