Patent ID: 7634685

Claim:
A disaster recovery method comprising: providing a plurality of remote, end-user computers; providing at least one host computer adapted to centrally store end-user computer backup components; providing a wide area networked communication link between said end-user computers and said host computer; uploading backup information to said host computer, wherein the backup information comprises backup components of one or more of the plurality of remote end-user computers; storing a profile for each of the plurality of remote end-user computers on the host computer, the profile comprising components of the remote end-user computer that are not duplicated on other remote end-user computers of the plurality, and indicia of generic components of the remote end-user computer that are duplicated on other remote end-user computers of the plurality, wherein the generic components comprise at least one file from a group consisting of operating system files and application files; via said one or more of the plurality of remote end-user computers, periodically updating corresponding backup information stored in the host computer by additionally storing differential information pertaining to how components previously backed up have changed and not storing redundant backup information previously stored in the host computer; and in the case of a failure of an end-user computer, transferring backup information pertaining to the failed end-user computer based on the stored profile of the failed end-user computer, from the at least one host computer to a target computer designated by a principal of the failed end-user computer and different from the failed end-user computer; wherein the transferring comprises automatically transferring a version of a software application to the target computer that is more recent than a version of the software application on the failed end-user computer.