1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform a method for preserving the structure and contents of metadata associated with an active file system, the method comprising: systematically locating inodes in the active file system and placing inbound scanner data associated with a located inode in a metadata update data store, where the inbound scanner data is encoded into one or more features associated with a feature vector associated with the located inode; detecting an event that changes a changed inode in the active file system and placing in the metadata update data store inbound transaction data concerning the changed inode, where the inbound transaction data is encoded into one or more features associated with a feature vector associated with the changed inode; selectively updating a metadata dump data store from the metadata update data store using the inbound scanner data, where the metadata dump data store is stored in a spatial database, where updating the metadata dump data store includes manipulating the feature vector associated with the located inode; and selectively updating the metadata dump data store from the metadata update data store using the inbound transaction data, where updating the metadata dump data store includes manipulating the feature vector associated with the changed inode using the inbound transaction data, where locating inodes, detecting events, and selectively updating the metadata dump data store operate at least partially in parallel to populate the metadata dump data store with metadata sufficient to restore the metadata of the active file system.