System for automatically shadowing data and file directory structures that are recorded on a computer memory

A data shadowing system, connectable to a monitored computer system, for the automatic backup storage into the data shadowing system of data that is written in the memory of the monitored computer system and the selective retrieval of this data from the data shadowing system for restoration to said memory of said monitored computer system, said data shadowing system comprising:

• data shadow copy module, external to and in communication with a monitored computer system, for storing a shadow copy of the data which is written in the memory of the monitored computer system;
• and
• customer data file manager, resident in said monitored computer system, for autonomously transmitting customer data files, which comprise non-NTFS files resident on said monitored computer system, to said data shadow copy module, comprising:
• customer data file map generator for autonomously mapping file directory structures associated with each of the customer data files into file tree information which identifies original names and a location of each customer data file that is stored in the memory of the monitored computer system, as well as a corresponding location in said data shadow copy module which stores a copy of these customer data files to enable both memory-level and file-level restoration of data, and
• mapping database for storing said file tree information in a database in said monitored computer system.