Patent ID: 7590668

Claim:
A computing system that facilitates pausing and resuming a backup of items in a file system store, the computing system comprising: a processor; and a storage medium storing executable instructions which, when executed by the processor, implement a method that includes: taking a snapshot of items in a file system store that are to be backed up in a backup session; identifying a unique property for each of the items in the snapshot and an order of the items in the snapshot based on the unique property associated with each item; begin backing up the items from the snapshot according to the identified order that is sorted by the unique property of each of the items; using a pause component of the computing system to pause the backup of the items at a certain point in the backup in response to a pause signal, wherein the certain point in at which the backup is paused corresponds to a last backed up item having a unique property; storing the unique property of the last backed up item as part of a backup state of the backup session; and subsequently resuming the backup of the items, in response to a resume signal, by commencing the backup from the certain point at which the backup was paused, by at least identifying the stored unique property of the last backed up item and by determining which of the items corresponding to the snapshot are subsequent in the identified order to the last backed up item, based on the unique property of each of the items, and by backing up the items that are determined to be subsequent in the order to the last backed up item, and such that the backup is enabled to resume from the certain point at which the backup was paused without having to completely reexamine a completed portion of the backup.