Systems, methods, and non-transitory machine readable media for determining block characteristics include one or more processors, a memory for storing instructions for the one or more processors, persistent storage, and a file system implemented in the persistent storage and storing data in the persistent storage using a plurality of blocks. When the stored instructions are executed by the one or more processors, the one or more processors are configured to traverse the plurality of blocks, read contents of a first block selected from the plurality of blocks, determine one or more characteristics of the first block from metadata within the block, and selectively perform or not perform a storage operation with respect to the first data block in response to determining the one or more characteristics. In some embodiments, the storage operation is a replication operation or a deduplication operation.