The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 29, 2002
Filed:
Feb. 16, 2000
Norbert P. Kusters, Woodinville, WA (US);
Luis Felipe Cabrera, Bellevue, WA (US);
Brian D. Andrew, Redmond, WA (US);
Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA (US);
Abstract
A system and method for creating a snapshot with a differential file maintained on the base volume that can grow as needed. When a snapshot is captured, free space is allocated on the base volume to receive the differential file. Writes to the base volume are allowed except to the free space allocated to the differential file. Then the snapshot is captured. After the snapshot process is complete, data that was originally present at the time the snapshot was captured may be copied to the differential file before it is modified. To grow the differential file out of its allocated space, new free space is selected from the free space currently on the base volume in conjunction with the free space at the time the snapshot was captured. The free space bitmap file of the snapshot volume may be used to identify the free space at the time the snapshot was captured.