A modified Reed-Solomon (RS) decoder comprises a syndrome calculation module that calculates a plurality of syndromes from a received codeword; a syndrome modification module that cyclically modifies the plurality of syndromes; an error correction module that selectively removes a set of error values from the received codeword at a set of error locations to create a corrected codeword; and a control module that determines whether the corrected codeword is valid, generates a success signal if the corrected codeword is valid, and selectively actuates the syndrome modification module if the corrected codeword is invalid.