[tWreCK51]

Has anyone (other than myself) experienced random flac file errors -fingerprint checksum doesn't match or chunks/pieces missing? Usually it's a 2Mb block or so that's missing. Now here's the catch, all FLAC files were double checked upon download and they checked out 100% - but when I randomly pick out & check some flac files they don't check out 100% anymore which means they're not keeping their integrity. I usually (but not always depending on time) listen to each release at least once as well.

I don't back them up them up to other media such as CD-R/DVD either because of the simple fact that having 2 1Tb Seagate drives should be adequate for archiving.

So the problem is - FLAC files that once checked out perfectly later become corrupt or have pieces missing from them. This usually happens after a few weeks or so. The question is why?

If it were a hardware related issue (HD, memory, system bus, etc) then other files (compressed format) such as mp3/rar/avi would also be affected but this isn't happening. Those other file formats are keeping their data integrity. So this leads me to the conclusion that it's the FLAC files that are prone to errors/corruption but the question is why? Maybe you guys have some answers because I'm clueless at this point? I'm thinking it might have to do with the level of compression these flac files have been encoded with. Higher levels (8) might be more prone to these errors as opposed to files encoded with lower levels of compression (> 6).

For the record I tested my memory (Memtest86) and scanned my HD's for bad sectors and it all checked out fine. No SMART errors triggered or anything.

Sorry 'bout the long post but this issue is pissing me off - I don't want to constantly have to re-download flac files because they've become corrupt or otherwise. It becomes very time consuming to try and maintain everything 100% intact, not to mention impossible considering the amount of files residing on my drives.........