Abstract: In one aspect, a method to replicate data includes determining if an I/O data block from a journal is generated by a replication initialization process; if the I/O data block from a journal is generated by the replication initialization process, determining if the I/O data block from the journal comprises zero data; if the I/O data block from the journal comprises the zero data, reading an I/O data block in a volume; and determining if the I/O data block from the volume comprises zero data. The method also includes, if the I/O data block from the volume comprises zero data, bypassing writing the I/O data block from the journal to the I/O data block in the volume.