Data Processing System with Failure Recovery

A method for processing data comprising:

• processing a block of data in a data processor in sections to produce at least one section result for each of the sections, and to produce a plurality of different section results for at least one of the sections;
• assembling the section results in various combinations to produce a plurality of results for the block of data;
• checking the results for errors in an error detection circuit;
• and
• reporting from the error detection circuit to the data processor whether the results contained errors.

A storage system comprising:

• a storage medium maintaining a data set;
• a read/write head assembly operable to sense the data set on the storage medium and to provide an analog output corresponding to the data set;
• an analog to digital converter operable to sample a continuous signal to yield a digital output;
• and
• a data processing system operable to process the a block of data in the digital output, comprising:
• a data processing circuit operable to process the block of data in sections and to yield at least one section result for each of the sections, and to produce a plurality of different section results for at least one of the sections;
• an assembler circuit operable to combine the section results from the data processing circuit in different combinations to yield a plurality of possible results based on the block of data;
• and
• an error detection circuit operable to test the plurality of possible results for errors and to report to the data processing circuit whether the plurality of possible results contain errors, wherein the data processing system is operable to output any of the possible results in which the error detection circuit found no errors.