1. A system for regenerating data derived from a defective portion of a medium, the system comprising: a data input, wherein the data input is derived from a medium; a media defect detector, wherein the media defect detector is operable to provide a defect flag indicating a defective portion of the medium; a data detector operable to receive the data input and to provide a first soft output; a data recovery system operable to receive the data input and to provide a second soft output; and a multiplexer, wherein the multiplexer is operable to provide either the first soft output or the second soft output as an intrinsic input based at least in part on the defect flag.