Patent ID: 7574435

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for accessing information, comprising: storing a composite object in a storage hierarchy using a processor of a computer with memory, wherein the composite object includes data objects comprising directories and files; storing a metadata object in the storage hierarchy, wherein the metadata object is an index to the composite object in the storage hierarchy, wherein the metadata object includes metadata entries, wherein each metadata entry corresponds to an associated directory in the composite object and includes an offset in the metadata object, a path, an object name, a type of data, a location in the composite object, and a length of the associated data object in the composite object; creating a partial key index in a database for the metadata object in the storage hierarchy, wherein the partial key index includes one or more partial key index (PKI) entries, wherein each PKI entry identifies a portion of the metadata object and includes a beginning location in the metadata object and an ending location in the metadata object, wherein the PKI index is created by scanning the metadata object to identify the directories; and in response to receiving a request from a user selecting a directory that is in the composite object, determining whether metadata that is to be used to display data objects in the selected directory is already loaded; and in response to determining that the metadata is not already loaded, using the partial key index to locate one or more PKI entries, wherein each of the one or more PKI entries corresponds to the selected directory; using each of the one or more PKI entries to retrieve location information of the metadata for the selected directory in the metadata object for the composite object; loading the metadata for the selected directory from the metadata object in the storage hierarchy into the database using the location information to locate the metadata in the metadata object; displaying one or more data objects associated with the loaded metadata; receiving an indication to perform an action on one or more selected data objects that are displayed; and performing the action, wherein, when the action is to restore the one or more selected data objects, performing: using the loaded metadata to identify a location of each of one or more of the data objects to be restored; and copying the one or more data objects to a specified destination.