A method and system in a data storage system for reading stored data from the data storage system, where the data storage system comprises N data storage drives and an associated cache, where data and calculated parity are striped across the N data storage drives, where a stripe comprises multiple sectors on each of the N data storage drives. Data is requested from the data storage system. A determination is made of whether or not the requested data currently resides in a cache associated with the data storage system. In addition, a determination is made of whether or not the requested data sequentially follows other sectors also residing in the cache. Only the requested data is fetched into the cache if it is determined that the requested data does not reside in the cache and the requested data does not sequentially follow sectors in the cache. The requested data and a predefined block of sectors within the N data storage drives are fetched into the cache if it is determined that the requested data does not reside in the cache and the requested data sequentially follows sectors in the cache, where the fetched predetermined block of sectors sequentially follows the requested data.