A data processing method includes receiving, by a virtual machine, an I/O access request. The I/O access request is used to access data, the I/O access request includes a type of hardware data used to indicate a working status of a virtual I/O device, and the virtual I/O device is obtained after the I/O device is virtualized. The method also includes identifying, by the virtual machine, that the type of the hardware data in the I/O access request is first-type data. The first-type data is hardware data of the virtual I/O device that remains unchanged in a data processing process. The method further includes obtaining, by the virtual machine, to-be-accessed data from a first memory space. The first memory space is memory storage space in the data processing system.