A method comprising acts of creating a full back-up data set (230) comprising a first plurality of data files (F1 - F4) creating at least one incremental back-up data set (230a) comprising a second plurality of data files (F2', F3') determining a most recent copy of each data file (F1 - F5) of the first and second pluralities of data files, storing a plurality of indicators each identifying a storage location in one of the full back-up set and the at least one incremental data set of the most recent copy of each data files, and creating a synthetic full back-up data set (234) that corresponds to the most recent copy of each data file (F1- F5) of the first and the second pluralities of data files based upon the plurality of indicators.