Patent ID: 7743171

Claim:
A method for initializing a device in a data storage system comprising: receiving a command requesting processing which includes initializing said device; receiving a second command inquiring regarding a status of the command; in response to receiving the second command after said command, performing processing including monitoring the status of the command by monitoring status information indicating whether processing for the command has completed and returning a status message in accordance with the status information, said status information including one or more initialization indicators and an online indicator indicating whether the device is available; setting said one or more initialization indicators each associated with a portion of said device indicating that said portion is to be initialized, wherein a value of one of said initialization indicators corresponding to a portion directly indicates an initialization status for said portion; receiving a subsequent data request which is a write data request to write data to a first portion of said device; prior to performing said subsequent data request, initializing said first portion if a first initialization indicator associated with said first portion is set, wherein said initializing is performed in response to receiving said subsequent data request; and after completing said initializing said first portion, performing processing for said write data request including storing said write data of said write data request to a cache slot to be destaged at a later point in time and setting a write pending bit in said cache slot.