In memory devices that degrade with use, a memory controller may monitor and record a usage history of portions of the memory. The memory controller can then vary a strength of error correction coding to protect information written to various portions of the memory having different usage histories. More specifically, and memory can receive information to be stored in the memory, select a portion of memory to store the information, and store the information in the selected portion of the memory with an error correction coding having a strength that is based on a usage history of the selected portion of the memory.