On 05/08/14 22:46, michael crane wrote: > bad hard drive ? Hard disks store an error detection and correction code with the data[1], and usually fail less subtly and regardless of the content of the data. Whereas failure to motherboard, processor and power supply tend to show themselves in very data-intensive scenarios such as asymmetric cryptography. I think main memory less so, because the crypto is likely completely contained in the cache.
HTH, Peter. [1] Although if the embedded processor for instance would start failing, it's possible to damage data with consistent checksums. Note that SATA communication between disk and computer also includes a checksum. -- I use the GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG) in combination with Enigmail. You can send me encrypted mail if you want some privacy. My key is available at <http://digitalbrains.com/2012/openpgp-key-peter> _______________________________________________ Gnupg-users mailing list Gnupg-users@gnupg.org http://lists.gnupg.org/mailman/listinfo/gnupg-users
