An archival cartridge management system for conditioning removable data cartridges and normal archival operations is disclosed. The archival cartridge management system includes a cartridge holder and a controller. The cartridge holder has a connector configured for coupling to a removable data cartridge. The connector is coupled to the controller, which performs archival functions on removable data cartridges. The controller reads from removable data cartridges to determine if at least some data stored on a removable data cartridge should be refreshed. If so, the controller refreshes data stored on the removable data cartridge.