Patent ID: 8041676

Claim:
A computer-implemented method comprising: receiving a list of file system objects from a first file system, the file system objects to be backed up by a backup application, the backup application running in relation to a second file system different than the first file system, each file system object having a file type that is known to the first file system where the file type of at least one file system object is unknown to the second file system; for each file system object of the list of file system objects, determining whether the file type of the file system object is known or unknown to the second file system; in response to determining that the file type of the file system object is unknown, performing: querying the first file system to obtain information regarding the file system object for the first file system to later recreate the file system object; and, storing, by the backup application, the file system object and the information regarding the file system object in the second file system; and, in response to determining that the file type of the file system object is known, storing, by the backup application, the file system object at the second file system, wherein the first file system is queried to obtain the information only with respect to each file system object having an unknown file type, and the first file system is not queried to obtain the information with respect to each file system object having a known file type.