Matrix error correction for digital data

A technique for digital data error detection and correction is disclosed which adds alignment and checksum bytes to three sides of a matrix (24) of digital data to be protected. This technique is particularly used for the recording and storage (16,18) of digital data on video tape medium (14). The digital data is treated as a matrix block (24). Checksum and alignment bytes are added (20) to the digital data before tape storage and stripped (22) therefrom after successful alignment checks and data validation. In particular, the first column may be used to provide alignment bytes of a predetermined value for each row. The last column provides row checksum bytes for the data in each row. The last row provides column check sum bytes for each column, excluding the column of alignment bytes. The data location at the intersection of the row of column checksum bytes and the column of row checksum bytes may be used as a checksum byte for either the row or column checksum bytes.