Methods and structure for storing volume and other configuration information on all disk drives of a volume group and for performing pre-merge operations to inform a user of the pending availability of the identified volumes. Configuration information has been historically stored in two distinct areas of configuration information on disk drives--a volume information area and an "other" information area. Aspects of the invention provide for storing all configuration information in the "other" information area. All disks of a system therefore include all configuration information relating both to volumes and to pseudo volume. A pre-merge operation is performed when each disk drive is inserted into a storage system to present new volume information to a user. When the last disk drive of a volume group is inserted, the user may select new volumes to be imported into the system.