Restoration of a backup of a first volume to a second volume on physical media

1. A method for restoration of a backup of a first volume to a second volume on physical media, the method comprising:

accessing a volume boot record of the second volume while the volume boot record is in a valid state on the physical media, the valid state enabling a standard operating system to access a data segment of the second volume;

modifying the volume boot record to place the volume boot record into an invalid state on the physical media, the invalid state preventing the standard operating system from accessing at least a portion of the data segment of the second volume;

while the volume boot record is in the invalid state, writing data from the backup of the first volume to the inaccessible portion of the data segment of the second volume; and

restoring the volume boot record to the valid state.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein:

the method further comprises creating the backup of the first volume;

the backup of the first volume includes a base backup of the first volume and an incremental backup of the first volume; and

at least a portion of the incremental backup is created after the data from the base backup has been written to the inaccessible portion of the data segment of the second volume.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the modifying the volume boot record includes modifying a signature portion of the volume boot record.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the modifying the volume boot record includes modifying the volume boot record to represent a file structure with a capacity less than an actual capacity of the second volume.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the modifying the volume boot record includes inserting status data into the volume boot record and periodically updating the status data, the status data indicating a status of the writing the data from the backup.

6. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing one or more programs that are configured, when executed, to cause one or more processors to execute the method as recited in claim 1 .

7. A method for restoration of an image backup of a first volume to a second volume on physical media, the method comprising:

accessing a volume boot record of the second volume while the volume boot record is in a valid state on the physical media, the second volume being divided between a file system metadata segment and a data segment that is separate from the file system metadata segment, the file system metadata segment configured to store blocks of file system metadata, the data segment configured to store blocks of file content, the valid state enabling a standard operating system to access the data segment of the second volume;

modifying the volume boot record to place the volume boot record into an invalid state on the physical media, the invalid state preventing the standard operating system from accessing at least a portion of the data segment of the second volume;

while the volume boot record is in the invalid state, writing blocks from the image backup of the first volume to the inaccessible portion of the data segment of the second volume; and

restoring the volume boot record to the valid state.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein:

the method further comprises creating the image backup of the first volume;

the image backup of the first volume includes a base image backup of the first volume and an incremental image backup of the first volume; and

at least a portion of the incremental image backup is created after blocks from the base image backup have been written to the inaccessible portion of the data segment of the second volume.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the modifying the volume boot record includes modifying a signature portion of the volume boot record.

10. The method of claim 7 , wherein the modifying the volume boot record includes modifying the volume boot record to represent a file structure with a capacity less than an actual capacity of the second volume.

11. The method of claim 7 , wherein the modifying the volume boot record includes inserting status data into the volume boot record and periodically updating the status data, the status data indicating a status of the writing the blocks from the image backup.

12. The method of claim 7 , wherein the modifying the volume boot record and the writing the blocks from the image backup are accomplished using private block accesses.

13. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing one or more programs that are configured, when executed, to cause one or more processors to execute the method as recited in claim 7 .

14. A method for restoration of an image backup of a first volume to a second volume on physical media, the method comprising:

creating a base image backup of the first volume;

accessing a volume boot record of the second volume while the volume boot record is in a valid state on the physical media, the second volume being divided between a file system metadata segment and a data segment that is separate from the file system metadata segment, the file system metadata segment configured to store blocks of file system metadata, the data segment configured to store blocks of file content, the valid state enabling a standard operating system to access the data segment of the second volume;

after the creating the base image backup, modifying the volume boot record to place the volume boot record into an invalid state on the physical media, the invalid state preventing the standard operating system from accessing at least a portion of the data segment of the second volume;

while the volume boot record is in the invalid state, writing blocks from the base image backup of the first volume to the inaccessible portion of the data segment of the second volume;

while the volume boot record is in the invalid state, creating an incremental image backup of the first volume;

while the volume boot record is in the invalid state, writing blocks from the incremental image backup of the first volume to the inaccessible portion of the data segment of the second volume; and

restoring the volume boot record to the valid state.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the creating the incremental image backup is performed after the writing the blocks from the base image backup.

16. The method of claim 14 , wherein the modifying the volume boot record includes zeroing at least a portion of volume boot record.

17. The method of claim 14 , wherein the modifying the volume boot record includes modifying the volume boot record to represent a file structure with a capacity less than an actual capacity of the second volume.

18. The method of claim 14 , wherein the modifying the volume boot record includes inserting status data into the volume boot record and periodically updating the status data, the status data indicating a status of the writing the blocks from the base image backup and of the writing the blocks from the incremental image backup.

19. The method of claim 14 , wherein the modifying the volume boot record, the writing the blocks from the base image backup, and the writing the blocks from the incremental image backup are accomplished using private block accesses.

20. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing one or more programs that are configured, when executed, to cause one or more processors to execute the method as recited in claim 14 .