Method of merging a clone file system with an original file system

1. A computerized method, comprising:

saving metadata about an original file system;

creating a clone file system of the original file system; and then

making a first modification to the original file system;

making a second modification to the clone file system, the first modification different than the second modification; and then

identifying the first modification based on the metadata; and

merging the first modification into the clone file system such that the clone file system has, after the merging, both the first and second modification;

refraining from merging the second modification into the original file system until at least one boot of a computer system from the clone file system.

2. The computerized method of claim 1 , wherein saving further comprises saving the metadata as information about files on the original file system.

3. The computerized method of claim 1 , wherein identifying further comprises detecting, through the employment of the metadata, files on the original file system that have, between creating the clone file system and identifying the first modification, been at least one selected from the group consisting of: changed, added, and deleted.

4. The computerized method of claim 3 , wherein detecting further comprises:

detecting, through the employment of the metadata, files on the clone file system that have at least one selected from the group consisting of: changed, added, and deleted;

determining corresponding detected files as between the original file system and the clone file system that have been at least one selected from the group consisting of: changed, added, and deleted.

5. The computerized method of claim 1 , wherein saving further comprises saving the metadata comprising a checksum for each file in the original file system.

6. The computerized method of claim 5 , wherein saving further comprises saving the metadata comprising a checksum and at least one attribute of each file of the original file system.

7. A computer-readable storage medium storing a program that, when executed by a processor causes the processor to:

save metadata about an original file system;

create, contemporaneously with saving the metadata, a clone file system of the original file system; and

at a later time identify a first modification to the original file system based on the metadata; and

merge the first modification into the clone file system such that the clone file system has, after the merging, the first modification and a second modification different than the first modification;

prevent merging the second modification into the original file system until at least one boot of a computer system from the clone file system.

8. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 7 , wherein:

when the processor saves the metadata, the program causes the processor to save the metadata about the original file system with the program operating as a user-level program;

when the processor identifies the first modification based on the metadata, the program further causes the processor to identify the first modification with the program operating as a user-level program.

9. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 7 wherein:

when the processor saves the metadata, the program causes the processor to save the metadata about the original file system on a clone file system disk drive; and

when the processor creates the clone, the program causes the processor to create the clone file system on the clone file system disk drive.

10. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9 , wherein when the processor creates the clone file system, the program causes the processor to create the clone file system on a bootable disk of the clone file system disk drive.

11. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 7 wherein when the processor saves the metadata, the program causes the processor to save the metadata about the original file system on a second bootable partition, different than a first bootable partition on which the original file system resides, and to create the clone file system on the second bootable partition.

12. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 7 wherein when the processor saves the metadata, the program causes the processor to save the metadata about the original file system on a first bootable partition that comprises the original file system and to create the clone file system on a second bootable partition.