A method to initialize information disposed in an information storage and
retrieval system comprising a data cache and one or more information
storage media comprising a plurality of addresses. The method receives an
initialization command, where that initialization command comprises a
range of addresses and, optionally, an initialization pattern, where the
plurality of addresses includes the range of addresses. The method forms
and saves state information, where that state information includes the
initialization pattern, and generates and saves a plurality of
indicators, where that plurality of indicators includes an indicator for
each track comprising the range of addresses. The method sets each of
those indicators to a first value thereby indicating special handling,
and provides an ending status signal, such that the receiving step,
forming step, generating step, setting step, and providing step are
performed substantially synchronously.