Secondary Storage Error Correction Utilizing the Inherent Redundancy of the Stored Data

Abstract

Data records in secondary storage have some inherent redundancy of information. This redundancy cannot precisely be predicted as in the case of typical error correction scheme’s artificial redundancy. However, the redundancy can be exploited to provide error correction with some degree of confidence. To that end, we develop a statistical error location and correction (SELAC) approach. We use simple and weighted checksum schemes for error detection and present algorithms for single and multiple error correction using SELAC. An implementation of SELAC will be described with an elaborate study of its error correction capabilities. A conspicuous aspect of SELAC is that it will not cost any processor time and storage overhead until after an error is encountered unlike the classical schemes using SEC-DED and DEC-TED codes.