Patent ID: 8661433

Claim:
A method for creating a restorable computer installation, comprising: performing a master software installation on a master drive in a computer system using sources of files available to an end-user; creating a source package including files that cannot be restored from the sources of files used in the master software installation; excluding a file from the source package; and including restore information in a catalog record of a catalog file, the catalog record corresponding to each file in the master software installation, wherein the computer installation is configured to be restored by running a rebuilder application, the rebuilder application configured to carry out the following steps: validating that the end-user possesses or can access each of the sources included in the catalog file that is not in the source package; interrupting running of the rebuilder application, or displaying a warning if the end-user does not possess or cannot access each of the sources included in the catalog file; and replicating the master software installation on a target drive using the catalog file as an instruction set, using: an end-user copy of sources listed in the catalog file; and the source package as the source for files not available in the end-user copy of sources listed in the catalog file.