> Also, bit flips in the non-ECC memory are _the_ cause of the "bitrot" phenomenon. That is when you write out X to a storage device, but you get Y when you read it back. A common explanation is that the corruption happens _at rest_. However all drives from the last 30+ years have FEC support, so in reality the only way a bit rot can happen is if the data is damaged _in transit_, while in RAM, on the way to/from the storage media.

Problems can definitely happen in the IO controller, RAID controller, cable, and disk controller. AFAIK all of these were seen and motivations for the existence of ZFS. One of their biggest insistence was that drives are universally lying bastards and should not be trusted any further than they can be thrown.