Patent 7913045 was granted and assigned to Hitachi on March, 2011 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A storage resource including one or more first storage devices; a first logical volume formed according to storage space of the storage resource; a member for accommodating a removable second storage device selected by a user; and a backup unit, the backup unit executing a backup of data stored in the first logical volume to a second logical volume formed according to storage space of the removable second storage device mounted in the member and paired with the first logical volume; and storing, in said storage resource, of backup generation information elements pertaining to what generation of the backup the current backup of the first logical volume is.