A method for reconstructing uncorrectable forward error correction (FEC) data includes generating and transcoding a known bit sequence and transmitting a FEC encoded codeword that includes a payload containing the transcoded known bit sequence through a component under test. The method further includes receiving the FEC encoded codeword transmitted via the component under test and determining that the encoded contents of the FEC encoded codeword contains a number of symbol errors that exceeds a predefined threshold. The method also includes utilizing stored scramble seed bits corresponding to an immediately preceding FEC encoded codeword and the transcoded known bit sequence to generate a reconstructed codeword.