6. The method of claim 1 further comprising loading a segment dictionary of the de-duplication dictionary with a plurality of segments obtained from one or more previously received volumes of data, and loading a handle dictionary of the de-duplication dictionary with values that correspond to component portions of the plurality of segments loaded into the segment dictionary, and wherein the plurality of segments loaded into the segment dictionary includes the dictionary segment, and wherein comparing each of the plurality of overlapping portions of the input segment with the plurality of portions of the dictionary segment comprises comparing each of the plurality of portions of the input segment with the contents of the handle dictionary.
6. The method of claim 1 further comprising loading a segment dictionary of the de-duplication dictionary with a plurality of segments obtained from one or more previously received volumes of data, and loading a handle dictionary of the de-duplication dictionary with values that correspond to component portions of the plurality of segments loaded into the segment dictionary, and wherein the plurality of segments loaded into the segment dictionary includes the dictionary segment, and wherein comparing each of the plurality of overlapping portions of the input segment with the plurality of portions of the dictionary segment comprises comparing each of the plurality of portions of the input segment with the contents of the handle dictionary. 7. The method of claim 6 wherein the values that correspond to the component portions are hash values determined based at least in part on the corresponding component portions.