Memory devices, circuitry, and data methods are described that facilitate the detection and correction of data in memory controllers, memory systems, and/or non-volatile memory devices by allowing the number of ECC check bytes being utilized to be varied to increase or decrease the ECC check depth. This allows the depth of the ECC coverage (the overall number of bit errors detectable and/or correctable in each sector by the stored ECC check bytes) to be selected based on the application, the amount of available data storage for ECC check bytes in the overhead/spare area associated with the sector, the version of memory device or controller being utilized, or the number of errors being seen in the memory system, device, bank, erase block, or sector (the error incidence rate), while the base data size of the area (sector) covered by the ECC check bytes stays the same.