Abstract: A method for reconfiguration of a disk drive array is provided. For the method of the present invention, an array controller in a disk drive array examines the original configuration of the disk drive array (the source configuration) and the desired configuration (the destination configuration). Based on this examination, the array controller determines if the reconfiguration process may be optimized. To optimize the reconfiguration process, the array controller determines if a combination of changes to system parameters and possible rebuilding operations can replace the migration process. If this is possible, the reconfiguration process is modified to eliminate data migration. Otherwise, data migration is performed. In this way, the present invention provides a method that dramatically increases the speed of reconfiguration for some source and destination configurations.