A system and method for using free space for recovering erasure coding data sets. The method includes segmenting at least one erasure coding data set into at least one stripe based on an erasure coding scheme, wherein each erasure coding data set includes chunks, wherein the chunks include chunks of systematic data and chunks of parity data; distributing the at least one stripe across non-volatile memory nodes based on the erasure coding scheme, wherein each non-volatile memory node is a unit of a non-volatile storage device; and upon a first failure of one of the non-volatile memory nodes: detecting that at least one of the non-volatile memory nodes that is not failed includes a first free space that does not currently store user data; and performing a first recovery process for recovering a first portion of the at least one erasure coding data set, based on the first free space.