Systems, methods and/or devices are used for efficient implementation of optimized host-based garbage collection strategies using xcopy and arrays of flash devices. In one aspect, a method of managing a storage system having one or more storage devices includes a host-based garbage collection operation that includes identifying two or more logical stripes in accordance with data storage information stored at the host system, and enabling a process of coalescing valid data in the two or more logical stripes. Further, the use of an internal copy operation (e.g., xcopy), allows the host-based garbage collection operation to occur without transferring data back to the host, thus minimizing the number of I/O operations between the host and storage devices. Additionally, use of the host-based garbage collection operation allows more sophisticated garbage collection algorithms (e.g., matching the current workload) to be used, and ensures that multiple logical stripes are available to write data.