Patent ID: 7818607

Claim:
A method in a first portable user computer configured for connection to a network, the method comprising: connecting to a data link configured for providing connectivity with a second connected portable user computer; establishing a recovered data storage system based on stored data elements having been replicated throughout a distributed storage system and based on an unavailability of the distributed storage system, each of the stored data elements having a corresponding unique object identifier that is independent of any storage address on a storage medium, the establishing including: (1) storing, in a table for each locally-stored data element having been stored in the first portable user computer based on the replication throughout the distributed storage system, the corresponding unique object identifier and a corresponding stored location of the corresponding locally-stored data element, (2) detecting whether the second connected portable user computer is reachable via the data link, (3) selectively sending to the second connected portable user computer at least one of the unique object identifiers stored in the table in response to a query from the second connected portable user computer that specifies an attribute of the stored data element associated with the least one unique object identifier, (4) selectively sending to the second connected portable user computer a second query that specifies an attribute of a data element determined to be absent from the first portable user computer, and (5) selectively storing, in response to reception thereof from the second connected portable user computer, any received unique object identifiers that are distinct from the unique object identifiers stored in the table, the unique object identifiers and said any received unique object identifiers identifying the stored data elements having been recovered in the recovered data storage system, said any received unique object identifiers including the unique object identifier for the data element determined to be absent from the first portable user computer.