Patent ID: 8868624

Claim:
One or more computer storage memory having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon for performing a method of garbage collection in a structured storage system, the method comprising: scanning a primary structured index for one or more expired Blobs in a Blob store, wherein the primary structured index includes a Blob property having a pointer to the Blob store, wherein the Blob store comprises a Blob log stream and a Blob data stream; deleting the Blob property, of the one or more expired Blobs, from the primary structured index; and reclaiming the one or more expired Blobs from the Blob store in at least one of the Blob log stream and the Blob data stream, wherein reclaiming the one or more expired Blobs from the Blob store comprises: creating a new stream; hard-linking active regions of extents from an old stream to the new stream: deleting the old stream; and renaming the new stream to the old stream.