Patent ID: 8423590

Claim:
A method comprising: for each section of a plurality of sections of a buffer, retrieving a string of characters from the section, by a computing device; reordering characters within the string of characters, by the computing device, to generate a reordered string of characters for the section; for each section of the plurality of sections of the buffer, copying over the string of characters within the section with the reordered string of characters for a different section of the plurality of sections, by the computing device; outputting the buffer to a file, the file adapted to mimic a non-artificially generated file in relation to testing a single-instance storage algorithm; and, testing the single-instance storage algorithm using the file by detecting a repeating pattern of data within the file, such that just one copy of the repeating pattern is stored within the file and other copies of the repeating pattern are each replaced within the file by a reference to the one copy of the repeating pattern stored within the file.