Patent ID: 6959368

Claim:
In a computer system including a host computer, a storage device storing data for the host computer, and at least one computer-readable backup storage medium storing backup data copied from the storage device, a method for duplicating at least some of the backup data stored on the backup storage medium, the method comprising a step of: (A) copying only a subset of the backup data from the at least one backup storage medium onto at least one computer-readable duplicate backup storage medium as duplicate backup data so that the duplicate backup storage medium is not an exact duplicate of the at least one backup storage medium; wherein the at least one backup storage medium comprises a first backup storage medium including incremental backup data for at least one work item at a first point in time and a second backup storage medium including incremental backup data for the at least one work item at a second point in time, and wherein the step (A) comprises a step of copying the first incremental backup data and the second incremental backup data onto a single duplicate backup storage medium.