Patent ID: 8751859

Claim:
A method for data validation comprising: associating a validation chunk with one or more data chunks stored on at least one storage medium, the validation chunk comprising validation information for verifying whether data recorded in a subdivision of the one or more data chunks is lost; receiving a request for an operation to be performed on first data stored in a first subdivision of a first data chunk from among said one or more data chunks; and examining one or more portions of the validation information to determine whether the data recorded in said first subdivision is deemed to be lost, wherein a data chunk comprises Y subdivisions and the validation information comprises N×Y identifiers, wherein N represents number of said one or more data chunks, an identifier corresponding to a respective subdivision on said N data chunks to indicate whether data recorded in a corresponding one of said Y subdivisions is lost, wherein the validation chunk further comprises Y redundancy data to provide a redundancy check for the N×Y identifiers across N data chunks, and wherein N and Y are integers greater than 1.