A system for storing and retrieving data utilizes a plurality of memory units having memory locations for storing data values. A checksum of a plurality of the data values in a particular checksum set is maintained in one of the memory locations. One of the plurality of data values can be recovered by combining each of the remaining plurality of data values with the checksum. After retrieving one of the plurality of data values during the data recovery process, steps are taken to ensure that any further attempts to access the location of the retrieved data value do not cause an update to the checksum. Therefore, the locations storing the data values of the checksum set may be accessed (e.g., read from or written to) during the data recovery process without causing errors to the data recovery process.