Patent ID: 7213116

Claim:
In a storage system having a primary system and a secondary system, a method for copying data from the primary system to the secondary system, the method comprising: creating a table of meta-data for a plurality of data objects stored on the primary system, the meta-data indicating relationships between the stored data objects and storage locations of the stored data objects at the primary system, including at least volume identification data, object identification data, and address information data of the stored data objects; when a request is made to copy one or more stored data objects from the primary system to the secondary system, copying at least some of the meta-data from the primary system to the secondary system, and preparing a list of all of the storage locations associated with the stored data objects to be copied; sorting the list of storage locations in the order of the address information for the stored data objects to be copied; and copying data from the primary system to the secondary system in accordance with the sorted list; wherein the stored data objects are stored in blocks at the primary system, and the step of copying data further comprises copying the blocks of the stored data objects to be copied from the primary system to corresponding blocks at the secondary system in the order of the address information in the sorted list of storage locations.