Patent ID: 8316277

Claim:
An apparatus to protect data, the apparatus comprising: an ECC generation module configured to generate error correcting code (“ECC”) check bits for data of a storage block in response to receiving the storage block and existing parity information generated for the storage block; a pre-storage consistency module configured to use the data of the storage block, the existing parity information, and the ECC check bits to determine if the data of the storage block, the existing parity information, and the ECC check bits are consistent; and a data storage module configured to store the data of the storage block and the ECC check bits for the storage block on a data storage device, wherein the existing parity information for the storage block is not stored on the data storage device; wherein the ECC generation module, the pre-storage consistency module, and the data storage module comprise one or more of logic hardware and executable code stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium.