Provided is a system and method which may execute a find operation on a union mount via individual find operations on the underlying file systems that make up the union mount rather than perform the find operation through the union mount itself. As a result, processing time of can be significantly reduced. In one example, the method may include receiving a request for a data item to be retrieved from a union-mounted file system comprising a plurality of layers of files which have been merged together, simultaneously executing, via a file manager, a plurality of find operations on the plurality of layers, respectively, without merging the plurality of layers together, receiving a plurality of sets of search results of the plurality of find operations from the plurality of layers in response to the executing, and merging and displaying the plurality of sets of search results.