A classification system executing on one or more computer systems includes a processor and a memory coupled to the processor. The memory includes a discovery engine configured to navigate through non-volatile memory storage to discover an identity and location of one or more files in one or more computer storage systems by tracing the one or more files from file system mount points through file system objects and to disk objects. A classifier is configured to classify the one or more the files into a classification category. The one or more files are associated with the classification category and stored in at least one data structure. Methods are also provided.