Methods and apparatus for storing parity bits in an available over provisioning (OP) space to recover data lost from an entire memory block. For example, a data storage device may receive data from a host device, write the data to a block, and generate a corresponding block parity. The device may then determine a bit error rate (BER) of the block and an average programming duration to write the data written to the block, calculate a probability of the block becoming defective based on the BER and the average programming duration, and comparing the probability of the block to a set of probabilities respectively corresponding to a set of worst-performing blocks in a NVM. Thereafter, the device may write the block parity to an available over provisioning (OP) space in the NVM responsive to the probability of the block being greater than any probability in the set of probabilities.