A method and apparatus for completing a backup job that was interrupted during a backup process, including identifying the job that was interrupted during the backup process, using the interrupted job to build a list of one or more volumes that still need to be backed up, generating a disk-based catalog containing a partially backed up volume from the list of volumes that still need to be backed up, retrieving a container object from one or more volumes stored in a client computer, determining whether the container object is listed in the disk-based catalog, determining whether the container object is partially backed up if the container object is listed in the disk based catalog, and writing the data contained in the container object to one or more storage devices if the container object is partially backed up or is not listed in the disk based catalog.