Patent ID: 7536424

Claim:
A computer system for managing incremental backup revisions comprising: a computer; a data storage informationally coupled to said computer, said data storage configured to hold stored data elements associated with at least one backup revision; a backup revision stored on said data storage, said backup revision comprising a plurality of backup sessions; a full backup set inventory of said backup revision indentifying at least one stored data element associated with at least one backup session of said plurality of backup sessions; a data set of said backup revision comprising said at least one stored data element; and computer executable program capable of running on said computer, said program comprising instructions for: computing a signature for said at least one stored data element; associating said signature with said at least one stored data element; determining if said stored data element has a non-zero probability of becoming a redundant stored data element as a result of an expiration of one of said plurality of backup sessions using said signature of said stored data element; and adding said probably redundant said stored data element to a set of delete candidate data elements.