Abstract: A method begins by a processing module receiving data for storage and interpreting the data to identify the data as redundant array of independent disks (RAID) data. The method continues with the processing module interpreting the RAID data to identify at least one of RAID block data and RAID parity data. When the RAID data includes RAID block data and RAID parity data the method continues with the processing module encoding the RAID block data in accordance with error coding dispersal storage function parameters to produce at least one set of encoded data slices and outputting the at least one set of encoded data slices to a dispersed storage network memory.