10. A method of storing files data and associated metadata, the method comprising: accessing at least a first and second computer each running a different operating system, with each different operating system defining a different file system, wherein each of the different file systems for the first and second computers stores file data and metadata associated with the file data in corresponding first and second different formats; defining operations with one or more application program interfaces (APIs) for writing the file data and the metadata associated with the different file systems to data storage; and handling at least the metadata associated with the different file systems in the first and second formats by a metadata handler having at least a metadata object extraction function, said handling comprising, receiving a metadata object with populated information corresponding to all metadata fields used by the first and second formats, the populated information being in a third format different from the first and second formats, extracting the populated information from the metadata object, and cooperating with at least one of the one or more APIs to generate and store metadata in at least one of the first and second formats from the extracted populated information.
11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the metadata object is a binary large object.