A signal bearing medium tangibly embodying a program of machine-readable instructions executable by a processor to perform operations to read information stored in a storage system. The storage system includes a controller coupled to a plurality of type I performance class disk drives and at least one type II performance class backup disk drive. The operations include executing a first read request for a first set of information from a first type I performance class disk drive and executing a second read request for the first set of information from a first type II performance class backup disk drive in response to an occurrence of a first read error associated with the execution of the first read request.