A high-performance and highly-reliable snapshot management apparatus and method, and storage system are provided that can prevent the adverse influence of overhead when they retain a multiplicity of snapshots. An operational volume is set in a storage area provided by a first storage apparatus and a plurality difference volumes are set in a storage area provided by a second storage apparatus. In response to data writing to the operational volume, difference data is saved in the difference volumes and management tables for it are created, with each snapshot being managed according to the management tables. Each management table is divided according to one or more snapshots in accordance with the snapshot creation time. The second and any following management tables store specified inheritance information to inherit the content of the preceding management tables.