Patent ID: 8301852

Claim:
A method for virtual data storage migration, comprising: providing a plurality of active data storage devices each in a powered up state and communicating with at least one computer system; providing a plurality of data for storage on the active data storage devices, the data being managed by the computer system; selecting at least one archive data storage device from the plurality of active data storage devices; archiving specified data to the archive data storage device when the data meets a specified archive criteria; maintaining the archive data storage device in the powered up state for a predetermined period of time; determining when at least a portion of the archived specified data is accessed in the archive data storage device; migrating the accessed archived specified data to at least one of the active data storage devices after the archived specified data is accessed; powering down the archive data storage device after the accessed archived specified data is migrated to the active data storage device; determining when the archived specified data is accessed more than once in the archive data storage device; and migrating the archived specified data to the at least one of the active data storage devices after the archived specified data is accessed more than once.