An embodiment of a method of restoring backup data comprises first and second steps that preferably are executed at least partially in parallel. The first step restores an incremental backup. The second step selectively restores a full backup. The selective restoration of the full backup disregards units of data that were restored from the incremental backup and restores a remainder of the full backup. In an alternative embodiment, the first step precedes the second step. In another alternative embodiment, the selective restoration of the full backup accesses a table that indicates the units of data contained in the incremental backup to determine which units of data to disregard in the full backup.