Restoring a file system object

A system comprising:

• a target computing device that generates a request to restore a file system object, the file system object being stored in image-based backup data produced from a raw image backup of a file system containing the file system object when the file system was backed up;
• an on-premise storage system that stores, for a period of time, the image-based backup data;
• an off-premise storage system that stores a copy of the image-based backup data;
• and
• a backup computing system that receives the request from the target computing device, determines whether the image-based backup data is accessible from the on-premise storage system, retrieves data blocks associated with the file system object without restoring the file system, and causes the file system object to be restored to the target computing device based on the retrieved data blocks,
• wherein the data blocks associated with the file system object are retrieved from the image-based backup data stored in the on-premise storage system if the image-based backup data is accessible from the on-premise storage system, and wherein the data blocks associated with the file system object are retrieved from the copy of the image-based backup data stored in the off-premise storage system if the image-based backup data is inaccessible from the on-premise storage system.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:

• receive a request to restore a file system object to a target computing device, the file system object being stored in image-based backup data produced from a raw image backup of a file system containing the file system object when the file system was backed up, wherein the image-based backup data is initially stored in an on-premise storage system and is subsequently copied from the on-premise storage system and stored in an off-premise storage system;
• retrieve blocks of data associated with the file system object from the image-based backup data without restoring the file system, wherein the blocks of data are retrieved from the on-premise storage system if the image-based backup data is accessible from the on-premise storage system, and wherein the blocks of data are retrieved from the off-premise storage system if the image-based backup data is not accessible from the on-premise storage system;
• and
• restore the file system object to the target computing device based on the retrieved blocks of data.