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Asked: 2026-06-07T15:38:43+00:00

Harddrive bit-rot does happen . I’m using SQLite for a project with fairly critical

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Harddrive bit-rot does happen. I’m using SQLite for a project with fairly critical data. Obviously, I’ll be taking regular backups of the database, but does SQLite checksum its data?

I’ve read about the PRAGMA integrity_check, but can’t really say whether it does integrity check on the actual data. The page “How To Corrupt An SQLite Database File” doesn’t really mention the fact about bit rot on a harddrive, which is the reason why I’m asking.

Also, the database I am dealing with will be an indexable append-only log. One option would be for me to rotate the database regularly and create an MD5 sum of each rotated file. But maybe that’s too much work…

Any input appreciated.

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  1. Editorial Team

    From reading the integrity_check documentation, I would say it would not be guaranteed to detect corruption that only affects user data (due to undetected bit errors on media).

    Since your data is an append-only log, you’ve got it pretty easy. One way would be to write a text file log on a separate hard drive that contains hashes (MD5 or whatever) of every row of your data. Then you can use that hash log to verify the contents of the real database. Obviously backups will be an integral part of your plan.

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