Patent ID: 7062644

Claim:
A method for initializing a storage device comprising multiple storage units through a storage controller, comprising: receiving a request to initialize a storage space that spans the storage units; determining a layout of sets of sequential data blocks of the storage space onto the storage units, wherein sets of sequential data blocks are written across the storage units; for each set of sequential data blocks, performing: (i) determining a block address in each storage unit where a first data block in the set of sequential data blocks will be written; (ii) generating a write command for each of the storage units, wherein each write command indicates the determined block address for the storage unit and a block number; and (iii) transmitting the write command with one block of initialization data to the storage unit, wherein the storage unit receiving the write command writes the block of initialization data from the indicated block address and writes the block of initialization data to each subsequent consecutive block in the storage unit a number of times equal to the block number.