Patent ID: 8301602

Claim:
A method of correcting at least some inconsistencies in a file system accessed by at least one client, the method comprising: while maintaining the file system online for access by the at least one client, executing at least one file system checking utility on the file system to detect and create corrections for at least some inconsistencies in the file system, wherein said executing the at least one file system checking utility on the file system includes: creating an offline version of the file system where the offline version includes data and metadata of the file system; executing the at least one file system checking utility on the offline version to detect inconsistencies with respect to data and metadata of the offline version; and writing to the offline version to correct at least some detected inconsistencies with respect to data and metadata in the offline version; and updating the file system to include at least some of the corrections, wherein said updating includes copying at least some of the corrections from the offline version to the file system.