A drive control module of a solid-state drive (SSD) includes a first module that receives host commands from one of a host command buffer and a drive interface of the SSD, converts the host commands to stage commands, and determines whether to store the stage commands in a stage slot of a staging memory or leave the stage slot empty. A second module transfers data between a buffer and a flash memory based on the stage commands. The flash memory comprises flash arrays. A third module detects a first empty stage of one of the flash arrays and based on an empty stage timer value triggers at least one of an end of the first empty stage, a start of an at least partially full stage of the one of the flash arrays, or a start of a second empty stage of the one of the flash arrays.