Patent ID: 8392371

Claim:
A computer implemented method to manage data comprising: examining a block of stored data on a tape library by a processing unit, the stored data comprising a plurality of data files, each data file comprising at least a header section and a data section, wherein the header section has an unknown format within the block; identifying at least two occurrences of a repeating pattern within the examined block of stored data, wherein the repeating pattern indicates at least one characteristic of the header section chosen from group consisting of: a location of the header section, a structure of the header section, a length of the header section, a beginning of the header section, and an end of the header section; based on the identification of the at least two occurrences, determining that the repeating pattern is at least a portion of a header section of a respective data file; identifying a data section of the respective data file based, at least in part, on a location of the at least a portion of the header section determined based on the identification of the at least two occurrences; and backing up the identified data section of the respective data file by the processing unit to a virtual tape library.