Patent attributes
Example apparatus and methods concern no touch synthetic full backups where a new backup is created using information about previous backups but without reading data from the existing backups. The no touch synthetic backup can be created by correlating file system information, backup specification information, and dedupe system information. One example method includes accessing a set of target extents associated with a synthetic backup image overlay specification and accessing a set of source extents associated with a file stored in a previous backup image. The set of source extents are selected so that they can provide data sufficient to cover the data described in the set of target extents. The method includes creating a set of correlation extents that bridge the gap between the original specification and the final specification.