An apparatus comprising non-volatile memory is configured to access a selected unit of encoded SLC data in the non-volatile memory during a first programming phase of a process of folding data stored at a single bit per memory cell to data stored at multiple bits per memory cell. The apparatus recovers the selected unit of SLC data based on redundancy data formed from units of SLC data that data include the selected unit of SLC data. The apparatus saves the recovered selected unit of SLC data to memory. The apparatus uses the saved recovered unit of SLC data during a second programming phase of folding the data stored at a single bit per memory cell to the data stored at multiple bits per memory cell, thereby saving considerable time in not having to again recover the SLC data using the redundancy data.