Continuous data protection over intermittent connections, such as continuous data backup for laptops or wireless devices
First Claim
1. A system for replicating changes to data stored on a portable device to an external data storage device, the system comprising:
- at least one processor; and
,at least one data storage device coupled to the processor;
wherein the processor is configured to—
in response to an indication of a detected change to data stored in a data store of the portable device, store information in a data structure that indicates the detected change to the data,wherein the data store has blocks having sizes and the data structure is a bitmap,wherein data elements of the bitmap are associated with respective blocks of data stored in the data store, andwherein a size of each block is determined based on an existing threshold; and
receive a connection indication that the portable device is communicatively coupled to the external data storage device;
in response to the connection indication, access the information stored in the data structure; and
copy the change to the data indicated by the information to the external data storage device.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A portable data protection system is described for protecting, transferring or copying data using continuous data protection (CDP) over intermittent or occasional connections between a computer system or mobile device containing the data to be protected, transferred or copied, called a data source, and one or more computer systems that receive the data, called a data target. CDP can be broken down logically into two phases: 1) detecting changes to data on a data source and 2) replicating the changes to a data target. The portable data protection system uses a method that performs the first phase continuously or near continuously on the data source, and the second phase when a connection is available between the data source and the data target.
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Citations
16 Claims
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1. A system for replicating changes to data stored on a portable device to an external data storage device, the system comprising:
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at least one processor; and
,at least one data storage device coupled to the processor; wherein the processor is configured to— in response to an indication of a detected change to data stored in a data store of the portable device, store information in a data structure that indicates the detected change to the data, wherein the data store has blocks having sizes and the data structure is a bitmap, wherein data elements of the bitmap are associated with respective blocks of data stored in the data store, and wherein a size of each block is determined based on an existing threshold; and receive a connection indication that the portable device is communicatively coupled to the external data storage device; in response to the connection indication, access the information stored in the data structure; and copy the change to the data indicated by the information to the external data storage device. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. At least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium encoded with instructions for tracking modifications made to data objects stored on a portable device that includes a file system and a continuous data protection component configured to monitor modifications to the file system, the method comprising:
in response to determining that the portable device is not connected to an external data storage location, at the portable device; determining information associated with a modification made to a data object stored on the portable device, further comprising; monitoring a modification to a data object on the file system, wherein the monitoring is performed by the continuous data protection component; and storing the associated information in a data structure, further comprising; storing an indication of the modification monitored by the continuous data protection component. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. At least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium encoded with instructions for controlling a computer system to method of tracking a requested modification to a file on a file system of a computing device, the method comprising:
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receiving an indication of a requested modification to a file on a file system of a computing device, wherein the indication is received by a filter driver configured to intercept requested modifications before they are received by the file system of the computing device; determining an offset within the file corresponding to the requested modification to the file and a size of the requested modification to the file; storing the determined offset within the file and the determined size; and relaying the first requested modification to the file to the file system. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15)
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16. A computer-implemented method for tracking modifications made to data objects stored on a portable device, the method comprising:
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determining when the portable device is connected to an external data storage location, wherein the portable device stores data objects, and wherein the external data storage location is configured to store copies of data objects from the portable device; and when it is determined that the portable device is not connected to the external data storage location, at the portable device; receiving an indication of a modification made to a data object stored on the portable device; determining information associated with the modification made to the data object; and storing the associated information in a data structure, wherein the data structure is configured to enable retrieval of the associated information from the data structure and to enable determination of the modification made to the data object based on the associated information; wherein the portable device includes a storage device having blocks, the data object is a file, the data structure is bitmap, wherein receiving an indication of a modification includes receiving an indication of a modification made to a portion of a file; wherein determining information associated with the modification includes determining a set of blocks on the storage device corresponding to the portion of the file to which the modification was made; and wherein storing the associated information includes changing bits corresponding to the determined set of blocks in the bitmap.
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Specification