Replacing a chunk of data with a reference to a location

A method executed on a computing device, the method comprising:

• receive a signature associated with a chunk of data;
• determining whether the chunk of data corresponds to a stored chunk of data by analyzing the signature to identify a corresponding signature within an index of signatures on a hard drive;
• and
• based on the identification of the corresponding signature, replacing the chunk of data with a reference associated with the corresponding signature to store in the removable media, the reference identifies a location of the stored chunk of data.

A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium encoded with instructions executable by a processor of a computing device, the storage medium comprising instructions to:

• generate an associated signature representing a chunk of data, the chunk of data as part of a data stream;
• a hard drive to receive the associated signature to determine whether the chunk of data corresponds to a stored chunk of data within a removable media by analyzing the associated signature to identify a corresponding signature within an index of signatures on the hard drive;
• based on the identification of the corresponding signature, replace the chunk of data with a reference associated with the corresponding signature, the reference identifies a location of the stored chunk of data;
• and
• wherein if the associated signature is without identification to the corresponding signature, populate the index of signatures on the hard drive with the associated signature and store the chunk of data on the removable media.