Patent ID: 8341121

Claim:
A method for backing up individual objects, comprising: receiving an indication of an imminent failure, wherein the indication is received by a trigger, wherein the trigger includes a system poll, an interrupt, and a manual trigger; using the indication of the imminent failure to select a policy, wherein the policy specifies a target for backing up the individual objects and a set of parameters for backing up the individual objects wherein the set of parameters includes at least one criterion for prioritizing the individual objects, wherein the target is selected from a set of targets based on a data transfer speed of the target, wherein based on the data transfer speed includes testing the data transfer speed of the target; determining a priority order of object types, wherein a first object type of the object types has a higher priority than a second object type of the object types; determining whether a backup of an individual object of the individual objects exists; based on the determination that the backup of the individual object of the individual objects does not exist, assigning a higher priority to the individual object; determining a prioritization of the individual objects according to the priority order of the object types and by timestamps, wherein the individual objects are associated with the timestamps, wherein determining the prioritization of the individual objects includes determining a nature of the imminent failure, wherein determining the nature of the imminent failure includes identifying a component associated with the imminent failure, wherein a higher priority is assigned to an individual object of the individual objects stored at the component; indicating the prioritized individual objects to a backup application; and backing up the prioritized individual objects according to the prioritization.