Can bad RAM cause file corruption

[elustran]

I have recently replaced some bad RAM that had a failed bit at an address around 977.4MB. I also had several correctable errors crop up when I ran chkdsk (on a Win XP machine).

How likely is it that I have serious file corruption, particularly in system files?

 

[sminlal]

It's certainly a possibility, but I don't know how to but a percentage on it. Note that system files don't get written all that often (mostly during Windows Updates), so they're not as likely to suffer problems as data or document files that you write to more frequently.

I had similar problems on my previous system which were fortunately caught pretty early by NTBackup (it reported errors on the verification pass). It's why I went with ECC RAM for my current system.