A system and method of operating a storage system is provided. The storage system includes a tape drive for reading and writing data to a magnetic tape medium of a tape storage media device, and an auxiliary memory emulator for receiving I/O commands to perform I/O operations on an auxiliary memory and for rerouting the commands to perform the I/O operations on the magnetic tape medium of the tape storage media device. The method includes receiving I/O commands to perform I/O operations on an auxiliary memory on a tape storage media device, wherein the tape storage media device includes a magnetic tape medium and does not include the auxiliary memory, and routing the I/O commands to the magnetic tape medium provided in the tape storage media device.