diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/store/Store.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/store/Store.java
index 5305095b6b5..aa1e4f4af59 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/store/Store.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/store/Store.java
@@ -56,6 +56,7 @@ import java.nio.file.NoSuchFileException;
 import java.util.*;
 import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicBoolean;
 import java.util.concurrent.locks.ReentrantReadWriteLock;
+import java.util.zip.Adler32;
 import java.util.zip.CRC32;
 import java.util.zip.Checksum;
 
@@ -431,12 +432,33 @@ public class Store extends AbstractIndexShardComponent implements CloseableIndex
     }
 
     public boolean checkIntegrity(StoreFileMetaData md) {
-        if (md.writtenBy() != null && md.writtenBy().onOrAfter(Version.LUCENE_4_8_0)) {
-            try (IndexInput input = directory().openInput(md.name(), IOContext.READONCE)) {
-                CodecUtil.checksumEntireFile(input);
-            } catch (IOException  e) {
+        return checkIntegrity(md, directory());
+    }
+
+    public static boolean checkIntegrity(final StoreFileMetaData md, final Directory directory) {
+        try (IndexInput input = directory.openInput(md.name(), IOContext.READONCE)) {
+            if (input.length() != md.length()) { // first check the length no matter how old this file is
                 return false;
             }
+            if (md.writtenBy() != null && md.writtenBy().onOrAfter(Version.LUCENE_4_8_0)) {
+                return Store.digestToString(CodecUtil.checksumEntireFile(input)).equals(md.checksum());
+            } else if (md.hasLegacyChecksum()) {
+                // legacy checksum verification - no footer that we need to omit in the checksum!
+                final Checksum checksum = new Adler32();
+                final byte[] buffer = new byte[md.length() > 4096 ? 4096 : (int) md.length()];
+                final long len = input.length();
+                long read = 0;
+                while (len > read) {
+                    final long bytesLeft = len - read;
+                    final int bytesToRead = bytesLeft < buffer.length ? (int) bytesLeft : buffer.length;
+                    input.readBytes(buffer, 0, bytesToRead, false);
+                    checksum.update(buffer, 0, bytesToRead);
+                    read += bytesToRead;
+                }
+                return Store.digestToString(checksum.getValue()).equals(md.checksum());
+            }
+        } catch (IOException ex) {
+            return false;
         }
         return true;
     }
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/store/StoreTest.java b/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/store/StoreTest.java
index fe4090fe72b..20e14b3f9c4 100644
--- a/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/store/StoreTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/store/StoreTest.java
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@
  */
 package org.elasticsearch.index.store;
 
+import com.carrotsearch.randomizedtesting.annotations.Repeat;
 import org.apache.lucene.analysis.MockAnalyzer;
 import org.apache.lucene.codecs.CodecUtil;
 import org.apache.lucene.document.*;
@@ -40,6 +41,7 @@ import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.nio.file.NoSuchFileException;
 import java.util.*;
+import java.util.zip.Adler32;
 
 import static com.carrotsearch.randomizedtesting.RandomizedTest.*;
 import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.*;
@@ -428,6 +430,79 @@ public class StoreTest extends ElasticsearchLuceneTestCase {
         IOUtils.close(store);
     }
 
+    public void testCheckIntegrity() throws IOException {
+        Directory dir = newDirectory();
+        long luceneFileLength = 0;
+
+        try (IndexOutput output = dir.createOutput("lucene_checksum.bin", IOContext.DEFAULT)) {
+            int iters = scaledRandomIntBetween(10, 100);
+            for (int i = 0; i < iters; i++) {
+                BytesRef bytesRef = new BytesRef(TestUtil.randomRealisticUnicodeString(random(), 10, 1024));
+                output.writeBytes(bytesRef.bytes, bytesRef.offset, bytesRef.length);
+                luceneFileLength += bytesRef.length;
+            }
+            CodecUtil.writeFooter(output);
+            luceneFileLength += CodecUtil.footerLength();
+
+        }
+
+        final Adler32 adler32 = new Adler32();
+        long legacyFileLength = 0;
+        try (IndexOutput output = dir.createOutput("legacy.bin", IOContext.DEFAULT)) {
+            int iters = scaledRandomIntBetween(10, 100);
+            for (int i = 0; i < iters; i++) {
+                BytesRef bytesRef = new BytesRef(TestUtil.randomRealisticUnicodeString(random(), 10, 1024));
+                output.writeBytes(bytesRef.bytes, bytesRef.offset, bytesRef.length);
+                adler32.update(bytesRef.bytes, bytesRef.offset, bytesRef.length);
+                legacyFileLength += bytesRef.length;
+            }
+        }
+        final long luceneChecksum;
+        final long adler32LegacyChecksum = adler32.getValue();
+        try(IndexInput indexInput = dir.openInput("lucene_checksum.bin", IOContext.DEFAULT)) {
+            assertEquals(luceneFileLength, indexInput.length());
+            luceneChecksum = CodecUtil.retrieveChecksum(indexInput);
+        }
+
+        { // positive check
+            StoreFileMetaData lucene = new StoreFileMetaData("lucene_checksum.bin", luceneFileLength, Store.digestToString(luceneChecksum), Version.LUCENE_4_8_0);
+            StoreFileMetaData legacy = new StoreFileMetaData("legacy.bin", legacyFileLength, Store.digestToString(adler32LegacyChecksum));
+            assertTrue(legacy.hasLegacyChecksum());
+            assertFalse(lucene.hasLegacyChecksum());
+            assertTrue(Store.checkIntegrity(lucene, dir));
+            assertTrue(Store.checkIntegrity(legacy, dir));
+        }
+
+        { // negative check - wrong checksum
+            StoreFileMetaData lucene = new StoreFileMetaData("lucene_checksum.bin", luceneFileLength, Store.digestToString(luceneChecksum+1), Version.LUCENE_4_8_0);
+            StoreFileMetaData legacy = new StoreFileMetaData("legacy.bin", legacyFileLength, Store.digestToString(adler32LegacyChecksum+1));
+            assertTrue(legacy.hasLegacyChecksum());
+            assertFalse(lucene.hasLegacyChecksum());
+            assertFalse(Store.checkIntegrity(lucene, dir));
+            assertFalse(Store.checkIntegrity(legacy, dir));
+        }
+
+        { // negative check - wrong length
+            StoreFileMetaData lucene = new StoreFileMetaData("lucene_checksum.bin", luceneFileLength+1, Store.digestToString(luceneChecksum), Version.LUCENE_4_8_0);
+            StoreFileMetaData legacy = new StoreFileMetaData("legacy.bin", legacyFileLength+1, Store.digestToString(adler32LegacyChecksum));
+            assertTrue(legacy.hasLegacyChecksum());
+            assertFalse(lucene.hasLegacyChecksum());
+            assertFalse(Store.checkIntegrity(lucene, dir));
+            assertFalse(Store.checkIntegrity(legacy, dir));
+        }
+
+        { // negative check - wrong file
+            StoreFileMetaData lucene = new StoreFileMetaData("legacy.bin", luceneFileLength, Store.digestToString(luceneChecksum), Version.LUCENE_4_8_0);
+            StoreFileMetaData legacy = new StoreFileMetaData("lucene_checksum.bin", legacyFileLength, Store.digestToString(adler32LegacyChecksum));
+            assertTrue(legacy.hasLegacyChecksum());
+            assertFalse(lucene.hasLegacyChecksum());
+            assertFalse(Store.checkIntegrity(lucene, dir));
+            assertFalse(Store.checkIntegrity(legacy, dir));
+        }
+        dir.close();
+
+    }
+
     @Test
     public void testVerifyingIndexInput() throws IOException {
         Directory dir = newDirectory();