Writing a special symbol to a memory to indicate the absence of a data signal

A method for writing in a memory system that includes receiving an address corresponding to a memory location in a memory, receiving a desired content to be written, encoding the desired content into a symbol, and writing the symbol to the memory location using an iterative write process of at least one write and one read to the memory location. The iterative write process includes determining if the symbol was successfully written to the memory location and exiting the iterative write process in response to the symbol being successfully written to the memory location. The iterative write process also includes determining if a halt condition has been met and exiting the iterative write process if the halt condition has been met. Once the iterative write process has been exited, the memory location may be identified as a candidate for being written with a special symbol.