A method, article of manufacture, and apparatus for efficiently backing up information is disclosed. In an embodiment, this comprises receiving data and analyzing the received data. In an embodiment, the data may be deduped. File headers, corresponding file metadata and corresponding file blocks are then created based on analyzing the data. In an embodiment, the data is discarded. The file headers, corresponding file metadata and corresponding file blocks are then organized into a self contained datastream. The self contained datastream is then stored in a storage device. File headers are used to indicate the start of a new file in the self contained datastream. File blocks contain the information necessary to reconstruct the files in the datastream. File metadata describes how to reconstruct the file, such as which file blocks are required for the file, and the location of each file block in the self contained datastream, among others.