Patent ID: 7613724

Claim:
A method for accessing a file or directory at a storage system, the method comprising: receiving a file access request for the file or directory; determining, in response to receiving the file access request, whether the requested file or directory is accessible through a metadirectory namespace containing files and directories which are not visible to one or more co-existing user-accessible namespaces, wherein the metadirectory namespace stores protected files and directories and the metadirectory namespace is a separate restricted-access hierarchical structure then the one or more user-accessible namespaces; determining, in response to determining that the file or directory is accessible through the metadirectory namespace, whether an originator of the file access request is authorized to access the requested file or directory in the restricted-access metadirectory namespace; and processing, in response to determining that the originator is authorized to access the file or directory, the received file access request.