Disclosed is a technique for fault isolation. A first error check is performed on a block of data in storage to determine whether the block of data was corrupted after the block of data was transferred from memory to the storage. When the first error check indicates that the block of data was corrupted, a second error check is performed using the block of data in the memory to determine whether the block of data was corrupted before being transferred from the memory. When the second error check indicates that the block of data was corrupted before being transferred from the memory, it is determined that the block of data was corrupted before being stored in the memory. When the second error check indicates that the block of data was corrupted after being transferred from the memory, it is determined that the block of data was corrupted by at least one of the memory or a formatter that performed the transfer.Additionally disclosed is a technique in which a block of data is transferred from a memory at a first control unit to a memory at a second control unit. At the first control unit, when a second error check at the second control unit indicates that the block of data was corrupted before being transferred from the memory, a third error check is performed on the block of data in memory at the first control unit. When the third error check indicates that the block of data was corrupted, it is determined that the block of data was corrupted at the first control unit. When the third error check indicates that the block of data was not corrupted, it is determined that the block of data was corrupted during transfer from the first control unit to the second control unit.