Patent ID: 8738588

Claim:
A method comprising: determining a used space of a logical volume of a storage repository that is currently being used by a plurality of needed files, the needed files each being a file that has one of: not expired as opposed to having expired, not deleted as opposed to having been deleted, and not outdated as opposed to being outdated; determining whether the logical volume qualifies for reclamation by comparing the used space of the logical volume against a logical size of the logical volume, such that where a difference between the logical size and the used space divided by the logical size is greater than a first predetermined reclamation threshold, the logical volume qualifies for reclamation; only in direct response to determining that the logical volume qualifies for reclamation, determining whether a non-sparse and unused space of the logical volume exists by determining whether the used space of the logical volume is less than a physical size of the logical volume, such that where a difference between the physical size and the used space divided by the logical size is greater than a second predetermined threshold, the non-sparse and unused space of the logical volume exists; only in direct response to determining that the non-sparse and unused space of the logical volume exists, determining an offset and a length of each hole region of a plurality of hole regions of the logical volume, the offset of a hole region being a location of where the hole region starts within the logical volume relative to a beginning of the logical volume; after determining the offset and the length of each hole region of the logical volume, nulling out each hole region of the logical volume by writing a null value to each position of a plurality of positions of each hole region, the plurality of positions starting at the offset into the logical volume and ending within the logical volume at the offset plus the length, where nulling out each hole region of the logical volume renders each hole region sparse; and after nulling out each hole region of the logical volume, updating a database with the physical size of the logical volume that has changed due to each hole region of the logical volume having been nulled out, where updating the physical size of the logical volume is configured to prevent repeated reclamation of space of the logical volume.