In another embodiment, the second user profile may include access rights allowing access to information about the available data storage capacity in the memory of the storage device. This embodiment may also advantageously be combined with embodiments in which the access rights of the second user profile are particularly restricted, for example to only the writing of data in the memory (for example in a predefined drop zone) of the storage device.

In this case, a user having the second user profile can obtain information, for example by means of a display device, relating to the storage capacity available for writing data in the memory of the device, when write access is allowed in the second profile. Depending on the embodiment, the display device here again may be integrated in the data storage device, or in a computing device to which the data storage device is connected.

In embodiments where the rights defined for the second user profile are confined to a preconfigured area of the memory of the device (“drop zone”) corresponding where appropriate to a partition of the memory of the device, information about the available data storage capacity in the memory of the storage device that is accessible to second-profile users is preferably limited to information about an available data storage capacity in the preconfigured area of the memory of the device (“drop zone”).

In one embodiment, the available storage capacity information that is accessible to the second user profile users can be updated as the second-profile users write data (for example, by copying data files) into the memory of the device.

In one or more embodiments, the control of the data storage device may comprise the creation and then the updating of a log of accesses to the memory of the storage device.