Patent ID: 7783671

Claim:
Performing a software-based method in an information management system, said information management system comprising a computer and a data store on a computer readable storage medium operatively connected to said computer, said computer including a processor, said software-based method comprising: using said at least one processor, initially assigning a plurality of disk blocks a respective first prescribed version number, wherein said plurality of disk blocks are associated with a corresponding plurality of nodes in a B-Tree data structure in said data store, and wherein said plurality of nodes are further associated with corresponding handles stored in said nodes and version numbers attached respectively to said handles and disk blocks; using said at least one processor, performing an allocate operation that includes returning a handle identifying a disk block along with the disk block's version number; using said at least one processor, storing said handle and said disk block's version number on said computer readable storage medium; and using said at least one processor, performing a deallocate operation that increments the disk block's version number.