A method and system for controlling an MBC configured flash memory device to store data in an SBC storage mode, or a partial MBC storage mode. In a full MBC storage mode, pages of data are programmed sequentially from a first page to an Nth page for each physical row of memory cells. Up to N virtual page addresses per row of memory cells accompany each page to be programmed for designating the virtual position of the page in the row. For SBC or partial MBC data storage, a flash memory controller issues program command(s) to the MBC memory device using less than the maximum N virtual page addresses for each row. The MBC memory device sequentially executes programming operations up to the last received virtual page address for the row.