A counter system includes a counter management subsystem, a storage subsystem having storage elements, and a non-volatile memory system storing a first counter including a first value field/first bitmap field combination for each storage element, and a second counter including a second value field/second bitmap field combination for each storage element. The counter management subsystem resets the first counter and, following each storage operation on a storage element, updates a bit in the first bitmap field for that storage element. When one of the first bitmap fields is filled, the counter management subsystem converts each first value field/first bitmap field combination to a respective first value, resets the second counter, updates the second value field for each storage element with the respective first value for each storage element and, following each storage operation on a storage element, updates a bit in the second bitmap field for that storage element.