diff --git a/build.xml b/build.xml
index 1a09910570..d2fc678539 100644
--- a/build.xml
+++ b/build.xml
@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@
     <property name="test.resources" value="${test.dir}/resources"/>
     <property name="test.classes" value="${build.dir}/test/classes"/>
     <property name="test.conf" value="${test.dir}/conf"/>
+    <property name="test.data" value="${test.dir}/data"/>
     <property name="test.name" value="*Test"/>
     <property name="test.unit.src" value="${test.dir}/unit"/>
     <property name="dist.dir" value="${build.dir}/dist"/>
@@ -369,6 +370,7 @@
       <formatter type="brief" usefile="false"/>
       <jvmarg value="-Dstorage-config=${test.conf}"/>
       <jvmarg value="-Dlog4j.configuration=log4j-junit.properties" />
+      <jvmarg value="-Dlegacy-sstable-root=${test.data}/legacy-sstables"/>
       <jvmarg value="-ea"/>
       <classpath>
         <path refid="cassandra.classpath" />
diff --git a/test/data/legacy-sstables/b/Keyspace1/Standard1-b-0-Data.db b/test/data/legacy-sstables/b/Keyspace1/Standard1-b-0-Data.db
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..962ed01a99
Binary files /dev/null and b/test/data/legacy-sstables/b/Keyspace1/Standard1-b-0-Data.db differ
diff --git a/test/data/legacy-sstables/b/Keyspace1/Standard1-b-0-Filter.db b/test/data/legacy-sstables/b/Keyspace1/Standard1-b-0-Filter.db
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..64d8c5d5d1
Binary files /dev/null and b/test/data/legacy-sstables/b/Keyspace1/Standard1-b-0-Filter.db differ
diff --git a/test/data/legacy-sstables/b/Keyspace1/Standard1-b-0-Index.db b/test/data/legacy-sstables/b/Keyspace1/Standard1-b-0-Index.db
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..8fb5706d6e
Binary files /dev/null and b/test/data/legacy-sstables/b/Keyspace1/Standard1-b-0-Index.db differ
diff --git a/test/unit/org/apache/cassandra/io/sstable/LegacySSTableTest.java b/test/unit/org/apache/cassandra/io/sstable/LegacySSTableTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..d37585c3d1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/unit/org/apache/cassandra/io/sstable/LegacySSTableTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,113 @@
+/*
+* Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+* or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+* distributed with this work for additional information
+* regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+* to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+* "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+* with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+*
+*    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+*
+* Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+* software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+* "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+* KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+* specific language governing permissions and limitations
+* under the License.
+*/
+
+package org.apache.cassandra.io.sstable;
+
+import java.io.File;
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.util.*;
+
+import org.junit.BeforeClass;
+import org.junit.Test;
+import static org.junit.Assert.*;
+
+import org.apache.cassandra.CleanupHelper;
+import org.apache.cassandra.io.util.BufferedRandomAccessFile;
+import org.apache.cassandra.db.DecoratedKey;
+
+import com.google.common.base.Predicate;
+import com.google.common.base.Predicates;
+
+/**
+ * Tests backwards compatibility for SSTables. Requires that older SSTables match up with the existing config file,
+ * and currently only tests specific cases for specific upgrades.
+ */
+public class LegacySSTableTest extends CleanupHelper
+{
+    public static final String LEGACY_SSTABLE_PROP = "legacy-sstable-root";
+    public static final String KSNAME = "Keyspace1";
+    public static final String CFNAME = "Standard1";
+
+    public static SortedMap<String, byte[]> TEST_DATA;
+    public static File LEGACY_SSTABLE_ROOT;
+
+    @BeforeClass
+    public static void beforeClass()
+    {
+        String scp = System.getProperty(LEGACY_SSTABLE_PROP);
+        assert scp != null;
+        LEGACY_SSTABLE_ROOT = new File(scp);
+        assert LEGACY_SSTABLE_ROOT.isDirectory();
+
+        TEST_DATA = new TreeMap<String,byte[]>();
+        for ( int i = 100; i < 1000; ++i )
+        {
+            TEST_DATA.put(Integer.toString(i), ("Avinash Lakshman is a good man: " + i).getBytes());
+        }
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Get a descriptor for the legacy sstable at the given version.
+     */
+    protected SSTable.Descriptor getDescriptor(String ver) throws IOException
+    {
+        File directory = new File(LEGACY_SSTABLE_ROOT + File.separator + ver + File.separator + KSNAME);
+        return new SSTable.Descriptor(ver, directory, KSNAME, CFNAME, 0, false);
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Generates a test SSTable for use in this classes' tests. Uncomment and run against an older build
+     * and the output will be copied to a version subdirectory in 'LEGACY_SSTABLE_ROOT'
+     *
+    @Test
+    public void buildTestSSTable() throws IOException
+    {
+        // write the output in a version specific directory
+        SSTable.Descriptor dest = getDescriptor(SSTable.Descriptor.CURRENT_VERSION);
+        assert dest.directory.mkdirs() : "Could not create " + dest.directory + ". Might it already exist?";
+
+        SSTableReader ssTable = SSTableUtils.writeRawSSTable(new File(dest.filenameFor(SSTable.COMPONENT_DATA)),
+                                                             KSNAME,
+                                                             CFNAME,
+                                                             TEST_DATA);
+        assert ssTable.desc.generation == 0 :
+            "In order to create a generation 0 sstable, please run this test alone.";
+        System.out.println(">>> Wrote " + dest);
+    }
+    */
+
+    /**
+     * Between version b and c, on disk bloom filters became incompatible, and needed to be regenerated.
+     */
+    @Test
+    public void testVerB() throws IOException
+    {
+        SSTableReader reader = SSTableReader.open(getDescriptor("b"));
+
+        List<String> keys = new ArrayList<String>(TEST_DATA.keySet());
+        Collections.shuffle(keys);
+        BufferedRandomAccessFile file = new BufferedRandomAccessFile(reader.getFilename(), "r");
+        for (String key : keys)
+        {
+            // confirm that the bloom filter does not reject any keys
+            file.seek(reader.getPosition(reader.partitioner.decorateKey(key)).position);
+            assert key.equals(file.readUTF());
+        }
+    }
+}
diff --git a/test/unit/org/apache/cassandra/io/sstable/SSTableUtils.java b/test/unit/org/apache/cassandra/io/sstable/SSTableUtils.java
index 4961c1ff7c..8ed14e3a1b 100644
--- a/test/unit/org/apache/cassandra/io/sstable/SSTableUtils.java
+++ b/test/unit/org/apache/cassandra/io/sstable/SSTableUtils.java
@@ -38,13 +38,8 @@ import org.apache.cassandra.io.util.DataOutputBuffer;
 public class SSTableUtils
 {
     // first configured table and cf
-    public static String TABLENAME;
-    public static String CFNAME;
-    static
-    {
-        TABLENAME = DatabaseDescriptor.getTables().iterator().next();
-        CFNAME = Table.open(TABLENAME).getColumnFamilies().iterator().next();
-    }
+    public static String TABLENAME = "Keyspace1";
+    public static String CFNAME = "Standard1";
 
     public static ColumnFamily createCF(long mfda, int ldt, IColumn... cols)
     {
@@ -97,13 +92,26 @@ public class SSTableUtils
 
     public static SSTableReader writeRawSSTable(String tablename, String cfname, SortedMap<String, byte[]> entries) throws IOException
     {
-        File f = tempSSTableFile(tablename, cfname);
-        SSTableWriter writer = new SSTableWriter(f.getAbsolutePath(), entries.size(), StorageService.getPartitioner());
+        return writeRawSSTable(null, tablename, cfname, entries);
+    }
+
+    public static SSTableReader writeRawSSTable(File datafile, String tablename, String cfname, SortedMap<String, byte[]> entries) throws IOException
+    {
+        boolean temporary = false;
+        if (datafile == null)
+        {
+            datafile = tempSSTableFile(tablename, cfname);
+            temporary = true;
+        }
+        SSTableWriter writer = new SSTableWriter(datafile.getAbsolutePath(), entries.size(), StorageService.getPartitioner());
         for (Map.Entry<String, byte[]> entry : entries.entrySet())
             writer.append(writer.partitioner.decorateKey(entry.getKey()),
                           entry.getValue());
-        new File(writer.indexFilename()).deleteOnExit();
-        new File(writer.filterFilename()).deleteOnExit();
+        if (temporary)
+        {
+            new File(writer.indexFilename()).deleteOnExit();
+            new File(writer.filterFilename()).deleteOnExit();
+        }
         return writer.closeAndOpenReader();
     }
 }