The invention relates to methods, and an apparatus for data reads in a host performance acceleration (HPA) mode. One method is performed by a host side to include: issuing a switch command to a flash controller to request the flash controller to activate an HPA function, and an acquisition function for a logical-block-address to physical-block-address (L2P) mapping table; issuing a write_multiple_block command to the flash controller to transfer a data block to a flash controller, where the data block includes a region number and a sub-region number; issuing a read_multiple_block command to the flash controller to obtain a plurality of L2P mapping entries corresponding to the region number and the sub-region number from the flash controller. The host side and the flash controller communicate with each other in an embedded multi-media card (eMMC) protocol.