A method for managing a block-based backup (BBB) includes: obtaining file system metadata, in which the file system metadata is for a file system on a production host; obtaining application metadata from the production host on which an application is executing; identifying assets in the file system metadata based on the application metadata to generate identified assets; generating a virtual file system for the application using the identified assets, in which the virtual file system does not include assets that are not part of the identified assets; receiving a request from the application to access a selected asset, in which the selected asset is one of the identified assets; and providing, using the file system metadata, access to the application for the selected asset in the BBB.