Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention include ECC-based encoding-and-decoding schemes that are well suited for correcting phased bursts of errors or erasures as well as additional symbol errors and bit errors. Each encoding-and-decoding scheme that represents an embodiment of the present invention is constructed from two or more component error-correcting codes and a mapping function ƒ(?). The composite error-correcting codes that represent embodiments of the present invention can correct longer phased bursts or a greater number of erasures in addition to single-bit errors and symbol errors, respectively, than either of the component codes alone, and are more efficient than previously developed ECC-based encoding-and-decoding schemes for correcting phased bursts of symbol errors and erasures combined with additional bit errors and symbol errors.