A system and method are provided to detect defects in a data storage medium by sampling data read from the data storage medium. Time referenced samples of data read from the data storage medium are equalized to mediate the effects of channel noise and the equalized samples are decoded by a decoder, such as a Viterbi decoder. The decoded signal is then reconstructed through a reconstruction filter to approximate the equalized signal. The equalized data signal and the reconstructed data signal are then combined and compared in a bit-by-bit deconstruction scheme to determine, based on a variation between the signal elements, that a defect exists on the data storage medium. Additional action is then taken to mediate the effects of attempting to process corrupted data based on the defect by isolating the defective bit.