Aspects of the present invention are generally concerned with systems and methods for generating a database of metadata that describes system data and storage operations. The database of metadata may be referred to herein as a “metabase.” For example, to generate a metabase, a data agent may traverse a file system to obtain certain characteristics of data managed by the file system while substantially simultaneously detecting and recording change notifications. These actions may be performed even if the actions of the data agent are interrupted one or more times during the traversal of the file system. The data agent may process the characteristics and change notifications to generate and update a metabase. Once formed, the metabase may be consulted to determine changes in system data rather than determining the changes by scanning the data files themselves.