Patent ID: 7831639

Claim:
A method comprising: creating a first point-in-time image of a volume in a sparse file, wherein the first point-in-time image is represented in a sparse format, and the creating the first point-in-time image comprises: identifying a first block of data within the volume, wherein the first block of data is identified in response to being modified subsequent to a particular point in time, and storing a copy of the first block of data to the sparse file, in response to the identifying the first block of data; creating a second point-in-time image of the volume in the sparse file, wherein the second point-in-time image is represented in the sparse format, and the creating the second point-in-time image comprises: identifying a second block of data within the volume, wherein the second block of data is identified in response to being modified subsequent to the particular point in time, and storing a copy of the second block of data to the sparse file, in response to the identifying the second block of data; and performing an administrative action on the first and second point-in-time images stored within the sparse file, wherein the performing comprises specifying the sparse file as a target of a file-specific command, the file-specific command is one of a plurality of file system commands, and the performing is performed by a computing device implementing a data protection utility.