A system for backing up and restoring information includes at least one storage device, a primary server for granting and denying a global lock to devices requesting access to the at least one storage device and at least one secondary server including internal tables for storing information relating to storage in the at least one storage device, the at least one secondary server requesting a global lock from the primary server, wherein after the global lock is granted by the primary server, the at least one secondary server checks its own internal tables to determine whether access to the at least one storage device can be granted.