Patent ID: 8521973

Claim:
A method for obtaining a modification history for a location within a data store for recreating an image of the data store at any previous point in time without reference to a snapshot of the data store, the method comprising: identifying, in a data store, a location associated with a data corruption event by parsing a historical index listing modifications to the data store, wherein the historical index is a record of write operations separately maintained and consulted within the data store, wherein the location is an address range within the data store, wherein the address range comprises a logical block address (LBA) and a length, and wherein the logical block address specifies a beginning of the address range and the length specifies the length of the address range; transmitting, by a computer, a request for a modification history for the identified location without reference to a snapshot of the data store, wherein the identified location is not associated with a previously created snapshot; determining which of the listed modifications were made to data at an address range at least partially overlapping the identified location; tracking times where modifications were made based on the address range at least partially overlapping the identified location; and receiving, by the computer in response to the transmitted request, at least one time at which at least a portion of data stored at the identified location was modified without reference to a snapshot of the data store.