A host may initialize itself faster by enabling an associated storage device to respond to host access commands under specified conditions before the storage device has completed its own initialization. Embodiments of the invention include a storage device, a controller, a method of servicing commands, and a method of using a host that sends access commands to a storage device. Access commands to a flash memory use logical addresses to reference the memory contents. A controller translates the logical addresses to physical addresses using a mapping table that the controller constructs in volatile memory during initialization based on data retrieved from the flash memory. An access command satisfying a predefined condition is serviced before the controller completes the construction of the mapping table.