Nothing new, but I recently got reminded of this bitrot thing.
Let’s talk about “bitrot,” the silent corruption of data on disk or tape. One at a time, year by year, a random bit here or there gets flipped. If you have a malfunctioning drive or controller—or a loose/faulty cable—a lot of bits might get flipped. Bitrot is a real thing, and it affects you more than you probably realize.
The JPEG that ended in blocky weirdness halfway down? Bitrot. The MP3 that startled you with a violent CHIRP!, and you wondered if it had always done that? No, it probably hadn’t—blame bitrot. The video with a bright green block in one corner followed by several seconds of weird rainbowy blocky stuff before it cleared up again? Bitrot.
If you’re an Accidental Tech Podcast listener, you’ll have heard the rants of John on HFS+ and Bitrot by now. Here’s some reading material to keep you focussed;
- HFS+ Bit Rot
- Is bit rot on hard drives a real problem? (stackoverflow)
- Bitrot and atomic COWs: Inside “next-gen” filesystems
For the next few weeks, every unexplained filesystem corruption error I encounter will be blamed on bitrot.