A fixed length Reed-Solomon encoder is configured to produce a first fixed number of redundant symbols. The fixed length Reed-Solomon encoder is configured with an encoding polynomial that is fixed. A symbol preprocessor maps each input data symbol to a transformed input data symbol. A symbol postprocessor maps a second fixed number of redundant symbols output from the fixed length Reed-Solomon encoder to a set of redundant symbols. The second fixed number of redundant symbols is less than the first fixed number of redundant symbols.