Technical solutions are described for shifting wearout of an array of storage disks in a storage system. In an aspect, a method includes staggering completion of maximum number of writes for each storage disk in the array. The method also includes copying data from a storage disk in the array to a replacement disk and redirecting a request to access the data from the storage disk to the replacement disk. The method also includes, in response to passage of a predetermined duration of time since copying the data from the storage disk to the replacement disk, copying the data from the replacement disk to the storage disk and directing the request to access the data from the storage disk back to the storage disk.