Patent ID: 6928578

Claim:
In a data storage system that includes a host computer coupled to a disk array controller that is in turn coupled to a plurality of data storage devices, a method providing improved data consistency checking and correction of user data stored in one or more data sectors on a data stripe, each data sector including a respective data header, the data stripe including a parity sector that in turn includes a parity header, the data stripe being distributed across the data storage devices, the method comprising: for each data header, storing a respective first code into the data header that represents the user data stored in the data header's respective data segment; storing a second code into the parity header, the second code representing a set of parity data stored in the parity sector; and, storing a third code into the parity header, the third code representing a value obtained by encoding the first code and the second code, the third code being used to check the consistency of the user data and the parity data without performing respective operations on each byte of data in both the data sectors and the parity sector.