Abstract: A method and apparatus is disclosed herein for checking the consistency of deduplication metadata after an unclean shutdown of a deduplication computing system. The method may include mounting a deduplication file system of a deduplication computing system after an unclean shutdown of the deduplication computing system. Furthermore, the method may include initiating a reconstruction and consistency check of deduplication metadata associated with the deduplication file system. Furthermore, the method may include receiving a user operation prior to completion of the reconstruction and consistency check of the deduplication metadata, and processing the user operation in parallel with the reconstruction and consistency check of the deduplication metadata.