Patent ID: 7177887

Claim:
An information backup system, comprising: A. a local computing system including (i) a local disk; and (ii) a local device driver responsive to requests from a local application executing on said local computing system, for selectively processing calls to said local disk or a remote disk for backup of data resident on said local disk, wherein said local device driver is disposed between a disk driver and a system interface and monitors availability of said local disk, wherein if said local disk is deemed inaccessible by said local device driver, said local device driver routes read/write operations of said local computing system to a remote computing system; and B. said remote computing system including (i) said remote disk; and (ii) a remote device driver responsive to calls from either said local device driver or calls from a remote application executing on said remote computing system, wherein calls from said local device driver are processed to perform backup operations to said remote disk of data resident on said local computing system, wherein said remote device driver is disposed between a remote disk driver and a remote system interface and monitors availability of said remote disk, wherein if said remote disk is deemed inaccessible by said remote device driver, said remote device driver routes read/write operations of said remote computing system to said local computing system.