Is it normal for initialization to occur when new?

WD Legacy Products Sentinel Products
8

I just picked up one of these 8 TB servers last night and my experience is the same as yours. From a fresh startup of a new system, it does want to initialize the RAID 5 array and I’m guessing, based on the rate of progress, is going to take several days to complete. Hope this is a very occasional thing, slows the box to a crawl. I had considered returning it, as this is a bit ridiculous, but since it replaces my failed Windows Home Server, going to a Drobo or other non-Windows server based solution doesn’t appeal to me. So, I’ll let the RAID 5 do it’s thing and hope it’s fast and useful once it’s complete. Not having dealt with RAID 5 rebuilds before, is it OK to use the server while it’s doing the initial RAID 5 initiailization or do we need to wait until it’s complete?