Cyclic point-in-time-copy architecture with data deduplication

A method for performing a write to a volume x in a cyclic point-in-time-copy architecture is described. In one embodiment, such a method includes determining whether the volume x has a child volume. The method then determines whether the target bit maps (TBMs) of both the volume x and the child volume are set. If the TBMs are set, the method finds a higher source (HS) volume from which to copy the desired data to the child volume. Once the HS volume is found, the method determines whether the HS volume and the child volume are the same volume. If the HS volume and the child volume are not the same volume, the method copies the data from the HS volume to the child volume. The method then performs the write to the volume x.