Patent ID: 8117168

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for backing up data, at least a portion of the method being performed by a computing system comprising at least one processor, the method comprising: at a first point in time, backing up at least a portion of a data-storage entity to a first virtual-disk file; capturing, in a second virtual-disk file, at least one change made to data in the data-storage entity after the first point in time; creating a parent-child relationship between the first virtual-disk file and the second virtual-disk file, the first virtual-disk file being a parent of the second virtual-disk file; copying data stored in the second virtual-disk file to the first virtual-disk file so that the first virtual-disk file comprises a synthetic backup that includes the at least one change made to data in the data-storage entity after the first point in time; storing the first virtual-disk file that comprises the synthetic backup in a manner that enables at least one virtual machine to boot from the stored first virtual-disk file; creating a first empty virtual-disk file; creating a parent-child relationship between the first virtual-disk file and the first empty virtual-disk file, the first virtual-disk file being a parent of the first empty virtual-disk file; retargeting the first empty virtual-disk file to provide a first retargeted virtual-disk file and to enable the at least one virtual machine to boot from the first virtual-disk file.