Best way to compress/verify/checksum for Data storage.

[knowhate]

Hello everyone,

I am planning on doing a vast overhaul-backup of all my precious family videos and pics for long term storage- and the best thing I decided for long term storage is to rar/zip (some kind of compression) all this hours of data.

My question is how to do this in the best possible way while also having a system to check and verify that all bits of data remain the same throughout bit by bit (I believe this process is called checksuming)..

I just want to have a full proof way of ensuring my personal files stay the same if I choose to store them in multiple copies on DVD or Harddrive.

I'm looking for all solutions from intermediate to professional. I am willing to learn professional software; I just need the job to be done right.

I know there is a way to just zip files in OSX, and then doing checksums by means of terminal (I'm not quite sure how the process works); but would this be the simplest, best way for hours of data?

Thank you again.

[knowhate]

Um posted in the wrong forum thread maybe?

anyone?