Abstract: On a computing device making use of removable storage media, the mechanical nature of the process for removing of the media enables the device to detect the beginning of this process before it reaches the point where the removable media has been removed to the extent that it is no longer operable. The minimum time taken to reach this point from the detection of the beginning of the process is with the present invention used to compute the size a data chunk which is guaranteed to be completely written provided the write begins before the start of removal is detected. By breaking down all lengthy write operations into chunks which can be written within this minimum time period, the risk of corruption of the removable media and the loss of data can be eliminated.

Abstract: A computing system is operated such that its file server is arranged not to block a client application and distinguishes between synchronous devices, which respond to requests immediately, and asynchronous devices, which do not. For asynchronous devices, it also distinguishes between synchronous operations, which complete immediately, and asynchronous operations, which take time to complete. The device drivers for the computing system only pass file server requests to separate drive threads when they involve asynchronous operations made on asynchronous devices.