US Patent 9921765 Partial snapshots in virtualized environments

Systems and methods create partial snapshot for a volume. Files and folders are identified for inclusion in the partial snapshot. In response to writing updated data to the volume, a volume snapshot layer can determine of the updated data is associated with a file or folder in the partial snapshot. If the file or folder is included in the partial snapshot, original data at the volume location is read from the volume and written to the partial snapshot.