A method comprising: after detection of unavailability of multiple systematic storage nodes that host systematic symbols of a file stored in a distributed storage system according to a high rate minimum storage regeneration erasure code, identifying a first plurality of indexes specified for the multiple systematic storage nodes, wherein a set of r indexes of the plurality of indexes is specified for each of the multiple systematic storage nodes, wherein r is the number of parity storage nodes for the file; determining whether at least one of the identified indexes is common across at least two of the multiple systematic storage nodes; based on a determination that at least one identified index was common across at least two of the multiple systematic storage nodes, determining at least s additional indexes that are not one of the identified indexes, wherein s is the number of the multiple systematic storage nodes; obtaining systematic symbols corresponding to the identified indexes and the determined s additional indexes from available systematic storage nodes; obtaining parity definitions and parity symbols corresponding to the identified indexes and the determined s additional indexes from available parity storage nodes; and recovering the systematic symbols that were hosted on the unavailable systematic storage nodes based, at least in part, on the parity definitions and the obtained systematic symbols and parity symbols. after detection of unavailability of multiple systematic storage nodes that host systematic symbols of a file stored in a distributed storage system according to a high rate minimum storage regeneration erasure code, identifying a first plurality of indexes specified for the multiple systematic storage nodes, wherein a set of r indexes of the plurality of indexes is specified for each of the multiple systematic storage nodes, wherein r is the number of parity storage nodes for the file; determining whether at least one of the identified indexes is common across at least two of the multiple systematic storage nodes; based on a determination that at least one identified index was common across at least two of the multiple systematic storage nodes, determining at least s additional indexes that are not one of the identified indexes, wherein s is the number of the multiple systematic storage nodes; obtaining systematic symbols corresponding to the identified indexes and the determined s additional indexes from available systematic storage nodes; obtaining parity definitions and parity symbols corresponding to the identified indexes and the determined s additional indexes from available parity storage nodes; and recovering the systematic symbols that were hosted on the unavailable systematic storage nodes based, at least in part, on the parity definitions and the obtained systematic symbols and parity symbols. determining at least s additional indexes that are not one of the identified indexes, wherein s is the number of the multiple systematic storage nodes; obtaining systematic symbols corresponding to the identified indexes and the determined s additional indexes from available systematic storage nodes; obtaining parity definitions and parity symbols corresponding to the identified indexes and the determined s additional indexes from available parity storage nodes; and recovering the systematic symbols that were hosted on the unavailable systematic storage nodes based, at least in part, on the parity definitions and the obtained systematic symbols and parity symbols. <EOS>