Claims

1. A method for backing up data comprising:connecting a source data unit to a backup data unit through a plurality of network connections,copying data in blocks of data irrespective of file structure from the source data unit to the backup data unit,disconnecting the source data unit from the backup data unit,copying data from said backup data unit to a computer readable physical medium, andrepeating the above steps on a predetermined schedule.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein copying data from the source data unit to the backup data unit includescomparing hash tables for data present on the source data unit to hash tables for data present on the backup data unit, andcopying the blocks of data where the respective hash tables are different.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the computer readable physical medium includes tape storage, andsaid method further comprising rotating the tape storage between backups using a predetermined rotation schedule for the tape storage.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the connecting and copying blocks of data steps occur in under one hour allowing for at least twenty-three hours to perform the backup of the copied data to tape storage.

5. The method according to claim 3, further comprising selecting the computer readable physical medium to copy data to based on the predetermined schedule.

6. The method according to claim 6, wherein the computer readable physical medium includes a set of computer readable physical medium for daily, weekly, and monthly backups.

7. The method according to claim 7, further comprising:providing access to the backup computer readable physical medium with descriptive labels to at least one user,receiving a selection of the file to recover for the user,retrieving the file from the selected backup, andproviding the file to the user.

8. The method according to claim 1, further comprising providing access to at least one backup data unit and at least one computer readable physical medium for file recovery as needed.

9. The method according to claim 8, further comprising identifying each available computer readable physical medium with a descriptive label indicating the date of its creation.

10. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:receiving a search query from a user for a search of backup files,performing the search in the plurality of backup data units and computer readable physical medium, andreturning the search results to the user.

11. A method for backing up data comprising:performing a backup of data from a source data unit to a backup data unit;disconnecting the source data unit from the backup data unit after the backup;in response to disconnection of the source data unit,readdressing the backup data unit to at least one predetermined internet protocol address and associating a temporal identification label to the backup data unit, andreaddressing a second backup data unit to at least one backup internet protocol address for receiving the next backup; andrepeating the performing and disconnecting steps for a backup to the second backup data unit, and in response to the disconnection of the second backup data unit,readdressing the second backup data unit to at least one predetermined internet protocol address and associating a second temporal identification label to the backup data unit, andreaddressing a third backup data unit to at least one backup internet protocol address for receiving the next backup.

12. The method according to claim 11, further comprising providing access to at least one backup data unit for file recovery as needed.

13. The method according to claim 11, further comprising identifying each backup data unit with a descriptive label indicating the date of its creation.

14. The method according to claim 11, further comprising:receiving a search query from a user for a search of backup files,performing the search in the plurality of backup data units, andreturning the search results to the user.

15. The method according to claim 11, further comprising:providing access to the backup data units with descriptive labels to at least one user,receiving a selection of the file to recover for the user,retrieving the file from the selected backup, andproviding the file to the user.

16. The method according to claim 11, wherein when the source data unit is connected to a production data unit, mirroring at least input/output instructions that modify data on the production data unit onto the source data unit.

17. A method for file recovery from a set of backups each of which contain a plurality of individual files, the method comprising:receiving via a user interface search parameters for locating a file to be recovered,performing a search of the files contained in the set of backups using the received search parameters,providing the search results to the user through the user interface having a list of backups to be selected from and a list of files satisfying the search parameters for the selected backup,receiving a selection of at least one file to restore from the user, andrestoring the at least one file to a user accessible location.

18. The method according to claim 17, further comprising receiving from the user the user accessible location prior to restoring the at least one file.

19. The method according to claim 17, further comprising receiving from the user the user accessible location as part of restoring the at least one file.

20. The method according to claim 17, wherein the list of files includes for each listed file: file type, file pathway, last modification, and owner.