A mass storage system can access any physical data storage device within it's system with no human intervention. In all but those large scale systems using removable tapes with manual management, the system can access any storage device at any time for playback or recording. This ability can also be used to allow automated media housekeeping. Rather than wait until a tape is played back to assess its condition, a mass storage solution and systematically check and validate every single storage device within it according to routines that can take into account usage, media age, batch performance and environmental factors. This level of active media quality checking is beyond the capabilities of all but the most extravagantly funded manually managed discrete data stores, and offers tremendous advantages to archives wanting to ensure the quality of their assets over time.