Patent ID: 8224784

Claim:
A method, comprising: determining a nature of changes made to respective components of a user state stored on a source computer; classifying respective components into at least one of a plurality of backup classes based at least in part upon the determined nature of changes to respective components of the user state; periodically storing the respective components of the user state on a backup computer according to predetermined schedules associated with the respective backup classes, the respective schedules based at least in part upon at least one of a time that has lapsed since a component was last stored and a percentage change of the component since the component was last stored; monitoring the source computer to identify at least one of a system failure and a predetermined drop in capacity; and if at least one of the system failure and the predetermined drop in capacity is identified, transferring at least a portion of the stored user state of the source computer to a target computer that is dissimilar in at least one of hardware and operating system relative to the source computer, transferring at least a portion of the stored user state comprising: transferring a portion of the user state that will not at least one of hinder an operation of the target computer and cause instability in the target computer from the backup computer to the target computer, the transferred portion of the user state comprising at least one of an application and a user-specific setting, the target computer configured to execute the transferred portion of the user state; and not transferring a portion of the user state that will at least one of hinder an operation of the target computer and cause instability in the target computer from the backup computer to the target computer, at least a portion of the method implemented at least in part via a processor.