Embodiments of the present invention provide a method and system, in a network storage system, for producing a balanced reconstruction load across storage devices (disks) in a storage array (array) using a scalable declustered layout. A scalable declustered layout is a logical configuration of parity groups across storage units (disk segments) which spread the chunk load and total share load of parity groups across disks in the array. Creation of a scalable declustered layout is achieved by sequentially selecting and allocating each chunk of a new (prospective) parity group according to the then-current load on each disk. The scalable declustered layout is then implemented on the disks to produce a balanced reconstruction load across disks when recovering from a disk failure.