Hierarchical Index for Backup Block Recovery

The patent applies preliminary action by creating an index structure before recovery operations. The index pre-organizes references to all backup blocks and their hierarchical relationships, so that when recovery is needed, the system can immediately locate the required data without searching through the entire backup copy. This preliminary organization resolves the contradiction by enabling efficient recovery of any number of data objects.

The patent introduces an index as an intermediary structure between the stored data objects and the recovery process. This index acts as a mediator that translates recovery requests into direct accesses to specific backup blocks, eliminating the need for inefficient full-sc searches. The index structure with parent-child relationships serves as the intermediary that resolves the contradiction between storing multiple objects and enabling efficient recovery.

The patent applies segmentation by dividing the index into hierarchical levels with parent and child relationships. Instead of creating a single complex flat structure, the index is segmented into multiple levels that mirror the directory hierarchy of the original file system. This segmentation reduces the complexity of each individual index level while maintaining fast retrieval capabilities through the hierarchical organization.

The patent transitions from a one-dimensional flat index structure to a multi-dimensional hierarchical structure by introducing parent-child relationships and level-based organization. This dimensional change allows the system to achieve fast recovery speeds through hierarchical navigation while keeping each level's complexity manageable, thus resolving the contradiction between speed and complexity.

The patent applies preliminary action by pre-building the index structure during the backup process, organizing all backup block references and their hierarchical relationships in advance. This preliminary organization ensures that the index contains complete information about all data objects while enabling fast location through direct access, thus resolving the contradiction between search completeness and search time.

The patent introduces the hierarchical index as an intermediary that provides complete coverage of all backup blocks while enabling efficient location. The index structure with parent-child relationships acts as a mediator that maintains the completeness guarantee (by including all blocks) while reducing search time (by enabling direct navigation to specific blocks through the hierarchical structure).