Systems and methods for making incremental physical to virtual backups of computer system data

A computer readable storage medium having stored thereon one or more sequences of instructions for causing one or more processors to perform the steps for creating and maintaining a portable computing environment, the steps comprising:

• creating a baseline image on an external storage device connected to a host computer system, the baseline image representing a first state of a native host environment of the host computer system, the baseline image including data and programs installed on the host computer system, wherein the baseline image can be launched on a virtual machine;
• identifying changes to a state of the native host environment, wherein identifying the changes to the state of the native host environment includes
• performing a block by block comparison of a first set of in-use storage locations storing data for the native host environment and a second set of corresponding storage locations on the external storage device,
• generating a first allocation bitmap representing in-use storage locations on the host computer system at which data is stored and free storage locations on the host computer system at which data is not stored,
• generating a second allocation bitmap representing in-use storage locations on the external storage device on which the baseline image is stored and free-storage locations on the external storage device at which data is not, and
• comparing the in-use storage locations of the first allocation bitmap to the in-use storage locations of the second allocation bitmap to identify changes made to the native host environment;
• generating a delta image representing the identified changes to the native host environment, the delta image comprising data from changed blocks;
• and
• writing the delta image to the external storage device to update an aggregate baseline image, the aggregate baseline image comprising the baseline image and the delta image.

A portable storage device for creating and maintaining a portable computing environment, the portable storage device comprising:

• an input-output (I/O) port for connecting the portable storage device to a host computer system or a guest computer system;
• a computer readable non-volatile memory for storing data and computer executable programmed modules to be executed by a processor;
• a configuration monitoring module configured to
• monitor a state of a native host environment of the host computer system when the portable storage device is connected to the host computer system and identify changes made to the native host environment, wherein identifying the changes to the state of the native host environment includes performing a block by block comparison of a first set of in-use storage locations storing data for the native host environment and a second set of in-use storage locations storing data for an aggregate baseline image stored on the computer readable non-volatile memory, and
• monitor a state of a remote host environment on the guest computer system when the portable storage device is connected to the guest computer system and identify changes made to the remote host environment;
• and
• a synchronization module configured to
• create a baseline image representing a first state of the native host environment and including data and programs installed on the host computer system and storing the baseline image in the computer readable non-volatile memory, wherein the baseline image can be launched on a virtual machine,
• generate a delta image that represents changes made to the remote host environment or the native host environment as identified by the configuration monitoring module, the delta image comprising data from changed blocks,
• store the delta image in the computer readable non-volatile memory as part of an aggregate baseline image,
• update the native host environment to provide an aggregate baseline image stored in the computer readable non-volatile memory when the portable storage device is connected to the host computer system,
• generate a first allocation bitmap representing in-use storage locations on the host computer system at which data is stored and free storage locations on the host computer system at which data is not stored,
• generate a second allocation bitmap representing in-use storage locations on the computer readable non-volatile memory on which the baseline image is stored and free-storage locations on the computer readable non-volatile memory at which data is not, and
• compare the in-use storage locations of the first allocation bitmap to the in-use storage locations of the second allocation bitmap to identify changes made to the native host environment.