Systems and methods to process block-level backup for selective file restoration for virtual machines

A system to process block-level data protection of virtual machine files for selective file-level restoration in a data management system, the system comprising:

• a storage manager in a first computing system comprising computer hardware configured to automatically identify an information store comprising virtual files associated with a virtual machine, wherein the virtual machine is associated with a media agent in a second computing device comprising computer hardware, and a host operating system having a file allocation table (FAT) comprising file information for each virtual file within the information store;
• the media agent configured to automatically transfer blocks of data comprising the virtual files from the information store to a secondary storage device during a block-level data protection operation of the virtual machine to create transferred blocks of data in the secondary storage device;
• the media agent further configured to automatically update a file index associating a location of a corresponding transferred block of data in the secondary storage device;
• the media agent further configured to access the file information in the FAT of the host operating system during the block-level data protection operation of the virtual machine;
• and
• the media agent further configured to automatically associate in the file index the file information associated with each block of data that was transferred from the information store during the block-level data protection operation of the virtual machine with the location of the corresponding transferred block of data in the secondary storage device;
• wherein, using the file index to locate the transferred blocks of data in the secondary storage device that comprise at least a portion of the selected virtual file, the media agent is further configured to restore one or more transferred blocks of data in the secondary storage device that are associated with the at least a portion of the selected virtual file without restoring transferred blocks of data associated with other than the selected virtual file;
• and
• wherein, using the file index to locate the at least a portion of the selected virtual file in the restored one or more blocks of data, the media agent is further configured to recreate the selected virtual file from the restored one or more blocks of data.