US Patent 10503604 Virtual machine data protection

Virtual machine (VM) data protection includes receiving a data stream comprising data and metadata corresponding to VM data to be backed-up and storing the data at a first location in a storage medium as a thinly distributed file. The thinly distributed file comprises a thin distribution entry between each of a plurality of data blocks to move a pointer from an end of a data block to an offset byte of a next data block. The metadata may be stored at a second location in the storage medium and may be linked to the thinly distributed file.