A storage system includes a client host, a storage device, and a separate data search appliance. The client software executing on the client host composes a query and sends a data search request to the storage device. The storage device passes the received query to the connected data search appliance. The search appliance invokes search process to find search candidates using meta information of the data stored in the storage device. Upon the completion of the search process, the search appliance returns the identified search results to the storage device. Upon receipt of the search results from the search appliance, the storage device passes them to the client. At the same time, the storage device pre-fetches the actual data which corresponds to the search results into its cache memory to ensure fast future retrieval. When the client requests to retrieve actual data corresponding to any of the search results from the storage device, the storage device returns the desired data immediately from its cache memory. If the client requests to retrieve additional data corresponding to another search result, these data is returned immediately as well.