A dispersed storage and task (DST) processing unit receives a data access request corresponding to a data segment. Range availability information is obtained for a plurality of DST execution units of the DST network. A subset of the plurality of DST execution units is selected based on the range availability information and a threshold number corresponding to the data access request. Execution unit access requests are generated and sent to the subset of the plurality of DST execution units corresponding to a plurality of slices of the data segment, wherein the execution unit access requests include address information that is based on the range availability information.