Patent ID: 7197608

Claim:
A storage system connected to a plurality of computers, comprising: a plurality of disk devices including a plurality of virtual volumes configured to correspond to a plurality of users, respectively; and a control block operatively connected to the plurality of disk devices and configured to control the plurality of disk devices, wherein at least one of the plurality of virtual volumes includes at least one shared volume in which software used by the plurality of users is stored, and at least one private volume having private information of a corresponding user, and the control block, in response to a data read command with respect to a first virtual volume, reads data from one of a first private volume and a first shared volume of the first virtual volume corresponding to a first user issuing the data read command and transmits the data to the first user, wherein the control block retrieves the data based on a priority rule which prioritizes reading from the first private volume at a higher priority than reading from the first shared volume.