Patent ID: 8548965

Claim:
In a computer processing system, an apparatus including a memory for managing file data, comprising: a changed files manager for creating and managing a changed files list that at least directly identifies the files that have changed based on time of change, the changed files list associated with a plurality of time buckets, each of the plurality of time buckets directly representing a respective date and time period and being associated with file change records for files having a timestamp falling within the respective date and time period, each of the file change records associated with a unique file identifier and the timestamp for a corresponding one of the files, the timestamp specifying a date and a time corresponding to a latest one of a creation time or a most recent update time for the corresponding one of the files; and a file system processing module comprising a processor for comparing a current date and time against a timestamp for a given file, creating a new file change record for the given file and inserting the new file change record into a corresponding one of the plurality of time buckets having the respective time date and time period in which the timestamp falls when an existing file change record does not exist for the given file, and moving the existing file change record for the given file into the corresponding one of the plurality of time buckets having the respective time date and time period in which the timestamp falls when the current date and time is different than the timestamp and the existing file change record already exists for the given file, wherein the existing file change record is maintained in a currently inserted time bucket, when the timestamp matches the current date and time and falls within the respective data and time period of the currently inserted time bucket and the existing file change record already exists for the current file.