Patent ID: 7107418

Claim:
In a primary system that has a primary mass storage and is in communication with a secondary system that has a secondary mass storage, a method for saving information comprising: tracking changes to the primary mass storage; consolidating the tracked changes into an update by retaining only changes required to bring the secondary mass storage current with a logically consistent state of the primary mass storage; and transferring the update to the secondary system; wherein the secondary system is configured to determine, based on the relative archival value of the secondary mass storage in a state prior to integration of the update on the one hand and the update on the other hand, whether the update should be integrated with the secondary mass storage or collapsed with one or more other updates; integrate the update with the secondary mass storage if it is determined that the update should be integrated with the secondary mass storage; and collapse the update with said one or more other updates if it is determined that the update should be collapsed with said one or more other updates.