Patent ID: 7818608

Claim:
A method of using a file system to generate backups of data for any of one or more different application programs in response to receiving a request to save the data at a file system filter driver and without requiring user input at the time of the request to save the data that specifically requests that a backup of the data be created, the method comprising: receiving at the file system filter driver a request generated by a particular application program to save a data file being processed by the particular application program, wherein the operating system of the computing system is operably coupled through the file system filter driver to a policy engine for automatically determining backup policies to be applied to the data processed by one or more different application programs, and wherein the operating system includes a file system and one or more drivers for accessing either embedded or removable storage; upon receiving the request to save the data file, the file system filter driver automatically accessing the policy engine and accessing one or more policies which specify: whether to create a backup copy for the data file, what type of backup to apply to the data file, and whether to store the backup copy of the data file, if any, in embedded storage, removable storage, or both; and upon determining that the one or more policies accessed by the file system filter driver require making a backup copy for the data file, the operating system thereafter controlling the one or more drivers in order to store a backup copy of the data file for the particular application program in accordance with the one or more policies.