Embodiments of the presently claimed invention enable a RAID set to appear as if it were initialized immediately after a command to initialize a RAID set is initiated. Typically, a driver or other software in the software stack intercepts the command to initialize the RAID set. The driver then responds to user application programs as if the RAID set initialization is complete, even when it is not. After intercepting the RAID set initialization command, the driver will intercept and respond to data read or write commands as if the RAID set were initialized. The driver or other software will then, typically initialize the RAID set using background tasks. In certain instances, data stored in a non-RAID configuration may be migrated to a RAID configuration during the initialization process.