1. A method for protecting data, the method comprising: creating a copy of a backup virtual machine on a deduplicated data storage device, wherein the backup virtual machine on the deduplicated data storage device includes a snapshot of a virtual machine, does not include redundant data, and is booted using replication pointers to replicate redundant data; registering the copy with a virtual environment manager; operating a virtual machine based on the copy; storing changes made during operation of the virtual machine to the copy; migrating the copy and stored changes to a virtual environment, wherein the virtual environment includes a VMDK file, wherein the VMDK files includes a VMDK header and an index, wherein the index includes a file record number associated with a file; and deleting the copy after migration.