Backup and restoration of computer information

A non-transitory computer-readable medium including computer-executable instructions, which when executed on one or more computers, cause the one or more computers to:

• modify a volume boot record of a restore volume to a first state in which at least a portion of the restore volume becomes inaccessible to a standard file system;
• write restore data to the inaccessible portion of the restore volume while the volume boot record is in the first state;
• and
• restore the volume boot record to a second state in which the inaccessible portion of the restore volume becomes accessible to the standard file system.

A method of backing up and restoring computer information, comprising:

• at a first computing system:
• creating a backup set of files by:
• creating a base backup file representing a full backup of a source volume by copying sectors of the source volume to the base backup file;
• and
• creating one or more incremental backup files including a final incremental backup file, each incremental backup file created by copying modified sectors of the source volume that have changed state since a preceding backup, the preceding backup being the full backup or a preceding incremental backup;
• at a second computing system using a block access process for:
• modifying a volume boot record of a restore volume to prevent a standard file system from recognizing the restore volume as having a valid file system;
• copying a portion of the backup set of files to the restore volume after the modifying the volume boot record and before finalizing the creation of the final incremental backup file;
• copying the final incremental backup file to the restore volume after all other backup files of the backup set of files have been copied to the restore volume;
• and
• finalizing the restore volume by restoring the volume boot record to a state indicating that the restore volume has a valid file system.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium including computer-executable instructions, which when executed on one or more computers, cause the one or more computers to:

• at a first computing system:
• creating a backup set of files by:
• creating a base backup file representing a full backup of a source volume by copying sectors of the source volume to the base backup file;
• and
• creating one or more incremental backup files including a final incremental backup file, each incremental backup file created by copying modified sectors of the source volume that have changed state since a preceding backup, the preceding backup being the full backup or a preceding incremental backup;
• at a second computing system using a block access process for:
• modifying a volume boot record of a restore volume to prevent a standard file system from recognizing the restore volume as having a valid file system;
• copying a portion of the backup set of files to the restore volume after the modifying the volume boot record and before finalizing the creation of the final incremental backup file;
• copying the final incremental backup file to the restore volume after all other backup files of the backup set of files have been copied to the restore volume;
• and
• finalizing the restore volume by restoring the volume boot record to a state indicating that the restore volume has a valid file system.