Patent ID: 7949641

Claim:
In a first computer system, a method for validating a desired portion of a target file that is downloaded from a second computer system, comprising: receiving a request from a third computer system to download the desired portion of the target file from the second computer system, wherein: the request is not received in response to a request sent from the first computer system to the third computer system, the third computer system is an administrative system, the administrative system comprises a management server, a database of information, components configured to perform scheduling and to handle alerts, and a management application, the management application performs remote control, software distribution, software license monitoring, operating system imaging and migration, IT asset management, and problem resolution, the first computer system comprises a management agent, and the request to download the desired portion of the target file from the second computer system is received by the management agent from the management application; receiving a validation list file, wherein the validation list file is a single file that comprises both previously calculated validation values for file blocks within the target file and file block information; identifying one or more file blocks within the target file that comprise the desired portion of the target file, wherein the desired portion of the target file is something less than the entire target file, wherein identifying the one or more file blocks comprises accessing the validation list file, wherein the validation list file is received by the first computer system before the one or more file blocks within the target file are identified by the first computer system, and wherein the validation list file is created by the management application of the administrative system prior to the management agent receiving the request to download the desired portion of the target file from the second computer system from the management application; downloading from the second computer system at least one of the one or more file blocks without downloading the entire target file; accessing from the validation list file a previously calculated validation value for a file block that has been downloaded, wherein the file block is something less than the entire target file, and wherein the previously calculated validation value does not correspond to any part of the target file other than the file block; calculating a new validation value for the file block; and if the new validation value for the file block does not match the previously calculated validation value for the file block, discarding the file block.