A method of detecting an occurrence of an error event in data and an apparatus for the same are provided. The method includes: preparing an error detection code wherein syndrome sequences for dominant error events are all different; generating a codeword from source data using the error detection code; detecting the occurrence of the dominant error event in the codeword by checking a syndrome computed from the codeword; and determining a type and likely error starting positions of the occurred dominant error event using the syndrome sequences correspond to the syndrome.