Each MSS file has seven reference times associated with it. They are the times of creation, last read, last write, and the last four references. The reference times are updated when a files is read, written or has its metadata changed. These reference times, along with the last read time, can be zero, which indicates the file has never been read nor has had its metadata modified.

Each MSS file also has read and write counters, which indicate how many times the file has been read or written.