Patent ID: 7634516

Claim:
A method, comprising: providing an active-only storage pool in a random access device, wherein the active-only storage pool is intended to include only active files and not inactive versions of files; associating a plurality of files in the active-only storage pool with a precursor aggregate in the active-only storage pool, wherein the precursor aggregate comprises a logical entity providing an association of files; deactivating one file associated with the precursor aggregate in the active only storage pool to produce an inactive version of the deactivated file, wherein the precursor aggregate is associated with the inactive version of the file in response to the deactivation; determining the inactive version of at least one file in the precursor aggregate; copying the files associated with the precursor aggregate to an aggregate managed file in an additional storage pool, wherein the aggregate managed file maintains the inactive version of the at least one file deleted from the active only storage pool, wherein files are maintained in a sequential ordering in the aggregate managed file and wherein the files in the aggregate managed file are written sequentially; determining whether an inactive file in the precursor aggregate in the active-only storage pool is inactive and has been copied to the aggregate managed file in the additional storage pool; deleting the determined inactive version of the file from the active only storage pool and the precursor aggregate association in response to determining that the inactive file was copied to the aggregate managed file in which files are maintained in the sequential ordering and maintaining aggregate information for the aggregate managed file and the precursor aggregate, wherein the information for each of the aggregate managed file and the precursor aggregate indicates the aggregate managed file or precursor aggregate identifier, a number of files in the aggregate managed file or associated with the precursor aggregate, and a field indicating a size of the aggregate managed file or an indication of a precursor aggregate.