Removing invalid data from a dataset in advance of copying the dataset

A system comprising:

• one or more storage devices;
• and
• a storage controller coupled to the one or more storage devices, wherein the storage controller is configured to:
• overwrite one or more first portions of a volume, wherein one or more second portions of the volume remain unchanged;
• detect a request to perform a first operation on the volume;
• perform background operations on the one or more first portions of the volume that were overwritten;
• prevent background operations from being performed on the one or more second portions of the volume that remain unchanged since the previous operation;
• and
• perform the first operation on the volume.

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing program instructions, wherein the program instructions are executable by a processor to:

• overwrite one or more first portions of a volume, wherein one or more second portions of the volume remain unchanged;
• detect a request to perform a first operation on the volume;
• perform, by a storage controller, background operations on the one or more first portions of the volume that were overwritten;
• prevent, by a storage controller, background operations from being performed on the one or more second portions of the volume that remain unchanged since the previous operation;
• and
• perform the first operation on the volume.