Patent ID: 7725438

Claim:
A method of creating a synthetic full backup of at least one file, the method comprising: creating a full backup at a first time, wherein creating the full backup comprises: (a) creating a first overhead segment and a first data segment for the at least one file; (b) Storing the first data segment at a first location in memory; (c) Creating a first pointer that identifies the first location; (d) Placing the first overhead segment and the first pointer into a first overhead stream; and (e) storing the first overhead stream at a second location in memory, whereby the overhead segment and the data segment are stored independently of each other; Creating an incremental backup at a second time, wherein creating the incremental backup comprises: (a) creating a second overhead segment and a second data segment for the at least one file; (b) storing the second data segment at a third location in memory; (c) creating a second pointer that identifies the third location; (d) Placing the second overhead segment and the second pointer into a second overhead stream; and (e) storing the second overhead at a fourth location in memory, whereby the second overhead segment and the second data segment are stored independently of each other; and combining the first and second overhead so as to form a third overhead, wherein the third overhead comprises at least one third pointer, and wherein the at least one third pointer comprises an altered version of at least one of the first and second pointers.