A method that prevents unnecessary data recovery includes receiving, at a data processing device, a status of a resource of a distributed system. When the status of the resource indicates a resource failure, the method includes executing instructions on the data processing device to determine whether the resource failure is correlated to any other resource failures within the distributed system. When the resource failure is correlated to other resource failures within the distributed system, the method includes delaying execution on the data processing device of a remedial action associated with the resource. However, when the resource failure is uncorrelated to other resource failures within the distributed system, the method includes initiating execution on the data processing device of the remedial action associated with the resource.