Space efficient backup technique in a storage system
First Claim
1. A method of backing up a file, comprising:
- (a) making a change to an original version of a file thereby creating a new version of the file;
(b) saving said new version;
(c) computing a transformation operator which is indicative of the differences between the original version of the file and the new version; and
(d) saving said transformation operator.
2 Assignments
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Accused Products
Abstract
Instead of storing a previous version of file, a backup technique stores a transformation operator which reflects the differences between a previous version of a file and a subsequent version. The operator may include the difference between a numerical value in the previous file version and the corresponding value in a subsequent version. Further, the transformation operator may indicate textual or binary changes between the file versions. To recover the previous version, the transformation operator is applied to the newer version to regenerate the previous version. If desired, multiple transformation operators can be maintained for a given file to be able to regenerate more than just the immediately preceding version of the file, thereby creating a multilevel backup system. The transformation operators preferably are stored in a RAID-type storage system for fault tolerance.
59 Citations
29 Claims
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1. A method of backing up a file, comprising:
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(a) making a change to an original version of a file thereby creating a new version of the file;
(b) saving said new version;
(c) computing a transformation operator which is indicative of the differences between the original version of the file and the new version; and
(d) saving said transformation operator. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A method of recovering an original version of a file that has been overwritten by a new version of the file, comprising:
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(a) retrieving a transformation operator which is indicative of the differences between the original version of the file and the new file version; and
(b) applying said transformation operator to the new file version. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A computer system, comprising:
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a processor;
an input device coupled to said processor; and
a non-volatile a storage device coupled to said processor, said storage device containing files and containing a transformation operator which is indicative of the differences between a first version of a file and a second version of the file. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. A computer system, comprising:
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a processor; and
a non-volatile a storage device coupled to said processor, said storage device containing files, one of said files being a third version and having two prior sequential versions, the earliest version being a first version and a latter version being a second version, and said storage device contains a first transformation operator which is indicative of the differences between the first version and the third version and said storage device contains a second transformation operator which is indicative of the differences between the second version and the third version. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 29)
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Specification