A system for optimizing data access is provided. The system includes a cluster file system server, a number of cluster file system clients, and a storage system. The storage system includes disk drives organized as paired master disk drive and one or more mirrored disk drives having copies of the data stored on the master disk drive. When a file is needed, the server determines which pair has the needed file, and then determines which disk drive within the pair should be accessed. The determination is made to balance the access load within the pair, and can select to retrieve the file from the drive which is least frequently accessed. The identification of the disk drive to be accessed is then forwarded to the client thereby allowing the client to access the appropriate disk drive to retrieve the file.