System and method for creating deduplicated copies of data storing non-lossy encodings of data directly in a content addressable store

A method of storing deduplicated images in which a portion of the image is stored in encoded form directly in a hash table, the method comprising:

• organizing unique content of each data object as a plurality of content segments and storing the content segments in a data store;
• for each data object, creating an organized arrangement of hash structures, wherein each structure, for a subset of the hash structures, includes a field to contain a hash signature for a corresponding content segment and is associated with a reference to the corresponding content segment, wherein the logical organization of the arrangement represents the logical organization of the content segments as they are represented within the data object;
• receiving content to be included in the deduplicated image of the data object;
• generating a new hash structure for the received content;
• determining if the received content may be encoded using a predefined non-lossy encoding technique and in which the encoded value would fit within the field for containing a hash signature;
• if so, placing the encoding in the field of the new hash structure instead of placing a hash signature for the received content in the field, and marking the new hash structure to indicate that the field contains encoded content for the deduplicated image, so that the received content is not stored since the received content can be derived from the encoding;
• if not, generating a hash signature for the received content and placing the hash signature in the field of the new hash structure and placing the received content in a corresponding content segment in said data store if it is unique.