When a read operation is sent to a resource within the PowerStore system, the system must first determine where the latest copy of the data being requested is located. If the latest copy is in the Node DRAM memory, the information is returned to the host or application requesting the data, and the read operation completes. If not, the resource metadata is reviewed to determine where the current data is located. If the data was a simple pattern, such as all zeros or ones, the block is re-created in DRAM memory and sent to the host. If the data being requested resides in the data drives within the system, the data is read and re-created in DRAM memory and sent to the host. Read operations to data residing within the drives do not cause the data to be changed in any way, thus preserving any deduplication and compression savings.