when archiving on DVD, should i make a mirror copy similar to RAID 1?

I would like to archive photos. Hard drive (HD) are unreliable after 3-5 years and are not design for long-term storage. DVDs are much better.

From my research i found that TAIYO YUDEN dvd+r is the best option and should last decades. I would like to delete photos off my hard drive and have them on DVD. I like multiple back ups but would like to eliminate HD to save space. I plan to have a dvds at home and a copy at work, also i'd keep a copy on adrive.com (cheap i-net storage).

so i've made identical dvds and stored them in different places. with time dvds will get bad sectors; most likely in different places. i'd like to combine the images of these old dvds with bad sectors to get one good image. similar to mirroring hds with RAID 1.

i'd like to know if there is a program that would combine 2 or more .iso files that have errors and get one without errors.

any suggestions on better archiving options are appreciated.

Solution 1:

The best backup/archive policy is 3 copies: 1 primary, 1 backup in case the primary fails, and 1 off-site in case of a fire or such.

Solution 2:

The best method I've heard for backing up data is the 3-2-1 method. That is: three copies of the data, two media types and one off-site.

Solution 3:

The reason why RAID 1 works is because, in the event of a read failure, the other drive is consulted. The drive with "good" data is determined by which one failed to read. If a drive is corrupted in-place (i.e. when not in use) and subsequently read, then conceptually there is an ambiguity over which drive is right.

If I needed to use DVDs, I would do what you're doing and make three (3) copies for each location. That way, if there is a corrupted disk, the corrupt bits can be determined by "majority vote". I don't know of a program that does this, but it wouldn't be hard to write.

I would probably also refresh each site every 5-7 years to avoid relying on aged media. If I were in a position where I was concerned enough to back up my data off-site in three locations, I would take the additional precaution even if the disk vendor says it is not necessary.