A system and method for organizing and managing recovery information on a per-transaction basis using distinct memory structures is provided. A transaction processing system includes one or more transaction request units for initiating data transactions with a database. A memory architecture includes storage modules to store transaction recovery information that is used in recovering from a transaction processing failure, and further includes transaction descriptor memory structures each of which correspond to a distinct transaction. The transaction descriptors allow access to the transaction recovery information to be isolated from other transaction recovery information. A control information field in each transaction descriptor stores a transaction identifier that identifies the distinct transaction to which it corresponds. The transaction descriptor also includes multiple information address fields, each of which includes a pointer to one of the storage modules that stores part of the transaction recovery information associated with the transaction identifier.