Detection and recovery from an nvm data integrity failure

The method of verifying the integrity of the non-volatile memory device contents in an image processing apparatus having image processing for forming an image, a controller for directing the operation of the image processing, a mass memory device and a non-volatile memory device for dynamically storing critical machine data comprising the steps of performing a non-volatile memory check including the steps of verifying selected patterns and verifying a checksum related to the non-volatile memory, determining a non-volatile memory fault during the process of performing the non-volatile memory check, retrieving backup critical machine data from the mass memory device, storing the critical machine data into the non-volatile memory device, and providing dynamically updated data backup of the non-volatile memory image to the mass memory device.