Patent ID: 8296338

Claim:
A process for establishing a singular file system across multiple devices comprising: receiving user information to open an account for establishing a singular file system across multiple devices via a web-based system that includes at least one server; installing an individual software client on each of the multiple devices via the web-based system; accepting registration of multiple devices via the web-based system; scanning each of the multiple devices by each of the individual software clients to inventory data on each of the multiple devices and create a meta-index of the files for the inventoried data; providing by the individual software clients via the multiple devices individual meta-indices of the inventoried data for each of the multiple devices to the at least one server; integrating by the at least one server the individual meta-indices to create a single master meta-index; providing by the at least one server the single master meta-index and meta-indices for each of the other multiple devices to each of the multiple devices via the individual software clients; integrating metadata from the meta-indices of each of the other multiple devices into a local file system of each of the multiple devices to generate virtual files stored in the same locations as local files of the local file system, the virtual files indistinguishable from the local files by the local file system at each of the multiple devices; and continually updating the single master meta-index on the at least one server and each of the multiple devices in response to changes to the data indexed thereon, wherein the individual software clients facilitate storage of the data within each of the multiple devices in accordance with the single meta-data index by modifying file systems of each of the multiple devices to include virtual files for data from the single meta-data index that is not local to a multiple device.