Patent ID: 8706679

Claim:
A method of cooperatively locking storage, comprising: receiving an indication that a set of previous version data associated with a corresponding set of one or more writes to a data space by a journaling process configured to write to the data space previous version data comprising copies of writes to a protected entity is required to be retained; in response to the indication, generating, using a processor, a set of identifier data associated with the set of previous version data indicating each of the set of one or more writes is to be retained by virtue of being associated with the set of previous version data; and determining whether to reclaim a storage data proposed to be reclaimed based at least in part on the set of identifier data associated with the set of previous version data, wherein in the event that the storage data proposed to be reclaimed is included in the set of identifier data, preventing reclamation of the storage data proposed to be reclaimed, and in the event that the storage data proposed to be reclaimed is not included in the set of identifier data, avoiding preventing reclamation of the storage data proposed to be reclaimed if the storage data proposed to be reclaimed is not associated with another set of identifier data associated with another set of previous version data that is required to be retained.