1. An article of manufacture including code capable of communicating with a client node over a network and a backup storage, wherein the code is capable of causing operations to be performed, the operations comprising: receiving a query for information on files from a file system for the client node; determining metadata for files in the backup storage for the client node stored external to backup sets; processing at least one backup set in the backup storage for the client node to determine metadata for files included in at least one backup set; merging the determined metadata for files in the backup storage and for files included in at least one-backup set to form merged metadata; executing the query against the merged metadata to determine files whose metadata satisfies the query; and returning results including information from the merged metadata on the determined files.