Gold image library management system to reduce backup storage and bandwidth utilization

Reducing backup data by providing a data protection target for storing content data from clients running operating system and applications, and a common data protection target (CDPT) separate from the data protection target for storing Gold image data for the operating system and applications. During backup, user content data is copied from the client to the data protection target, and Gold image data is copied to the CDPT. It is also referenced in the DP target to prevent redundant storage. During backup, the CDPT is queried to determine if the Gold image exists, and if so, the DP target does not store the Gold image data in the DP target, but uses the reference to indicate the location of the Gold image data corresponding to the backed up content data. During a restore, the restore stream is built from the DP target and CDPT to combine user content data and Gold image data.