1. A method for locating a file object in a storage system, comprising: determining at least one characteristic of the file object, the file object being a target file object; obtaining a subset of nodes in the storage system by applying the at least one characteristic to criteria for storing file objects at particular ones of the nodes in the storage system, wherein the subset of nodes is in a hierarchical directory structure having a root node, and wherein at least one of: (i) the root node or (ii) at least one intermediate node in a path between the subset of nodes and the root node, is unavailable; examining the subset of nodes to determine if any contain the file object; and locating the file object when the file object is contained in at least one of the nodes of the subset of nodes, wherein the file object located is the target file object for which the at least one characteristic is determined, wherein the file object located is not a replica of the target file object, wherein the criteria includes at least one policy relating to placement of objects corresponding to files at the time the files are created, and wherein the characteristic information includes at least one of: an owner of the target file object, a date that the target file object was created, a business organization associated with the target file object, a group associated with a parent directory, or a size of the target file object.