Patent ID: 8006126

Claim:
A data integrity evaluation method comprising: receiving a request for performing an operation on a first data chunk from among N data chunks respectively written across N storage mediums, wherein a recovery chunk recorded on a second storage medium independent of said N storage mediums is associated with said N data chunks such that recovery information included in said recovery chunk is calculated based on collective value of data stored in said N data chunks, wherein the recovery chunk is associated with a first validation appendix comprising a set of N validation information, wherein each of the N validation information corresponds to one of the N data chunks and each validation information is usable to independently validate the respective data chunk; attempting to validate the first data chunk based on first validation information associated with the first data chunk; and in response to not being able to validate the first data chunk based on the first validation information, examining secondary validation information associated with one or more data chunks other than the first data chunk to determine whether the first data chunk is valid.