Hi,
I implemented a patch for both 2.6.6 and 2.8 that adds a isDataFileZeroingNeeded option for mongoD (Windows only). If isDataFileZeroingNeeded is set to false, data files are not zeroed. This reduces execution time for rs.initialize() from over 5 minutes to a few seconds. Our app's install script can detect if the OS is Windows 2008 R2 and the http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2731284 hotfix is not installed and set isDataFileZeroingNeeded accordingly.

Here's the commit https://github.com/agherardi/mongo/commit/4c580e917c8673a1045eada2148add4fe9ea8924 , on my mongod github branch.

Would you consider adding this change to 2.8?

Thank you,
Alessandro