A disk recovery system and method is provided for recovering data from a redundant array of independent (or inexpensive) disks. The method is implemented in a computer infrastructure having computer executable code tangibly embodied on a computer readable storage medium having programming instructions. The computer readable storage medium is operable to: determine input/output (I/O) characteristics of one or more disks in an array; monitor the one or more disks in the array to determine when any of the one or more of the disks have failed in the array; and automatically rebuild the failed disk from a standby pool by nominating a disk in the standby pool based on the I/O characteristics of the one or more failed disks prior to failure.