Various techniques are described for improving the performance of a shared-nothing database system in which at least two of the nodes that are running the shared-nothing database system have shared access to a disk. Specifically, techniques are provided for recovering the data owned by a failed node using multiple recovery nodes operating in parallel. The data owned by a failed node is reassigned to recovery nodes that have access to the shared disk on which the data resides. The recovery logs of the failed node are read by the recovery nodes, or by a coordinator process that distributes the recovery tasks to the recovery nodes.