Abstract: In general, in one aspect, the disclosure describes a method that includes maintaining a superset of data available to a client having non volatile memory (NVM) on a distant hard drive. A subset of the data is maintained in the NVM on the client. The client controls the data maintained on the distant hard drive and the data maintained in the NVM. A single merged directory/file structure is generated from a directory/file structure of the superset and a directory/file structure of the subset. The directory/file structures overlap and the single merged directory/file structure merges the overlapping directory/file structures so only the directory/file structure of the subset is presented for the overlap. The single merged directory/file structure is presented to a user of the client and applications running thereon.