How do you archive digital photos and videos?

Solution 1:

Offsite.

I strongly encourage getting either multiple backup devices and rotating them from home->work/safe deposit box or backing up offsite using JungleDisk, Mozy, DropBox, etc. Keeping in mind that a single on-site backup is better than no backup and that RAID is not a backup I'd chose from the list below what is appropriate for your needs.

In order of not sucking as far as archival purposes:

1. multiple offsite + [multiple] onsite - Best possible solution
2. Offsite + onsite - Great for nearly all uses (computer melts and takes your backup with it, you just get your data from off site)
3. Single offsite - Alright, could be better (what if their data center gets taken out by a hurricane, or Godzilla?)
4. Onsite only - Worst "working" backup (only protects from hardware/software/user faults not disaster/theft)
5. No backup - Don't come crying when you lose your data

Solution 2:

The best way in my opinion is use all of them if your data is really important, since each media has it's flaws. Remember: if you have one backup, you actually have none.

I usually use 3 different media types, with 2 different brands in each media in my backups.

1. DVDs: I use TDK's and MAXELL's media here in my country (beware of the manufacturer, sometimes the brand is different but it has the same manufacturer). You should do some research in DVD media quality. Club MyCE is a great place.

2. Hard disks: I backup to a 500gb Seagate and a 500gb Samsung drive.

3. Online Services: I use online services too, Dropbox and iDrive. I encrypt my files before sending them. Windows SkyDrive service has some utilities that integrate tino windows creating a "virtual" drive, it's an interesting option too - and they give you 25gb.

I backup once a week to DVDs and Hard Disks. I use a software called Areca Backup, written in Java. I've tested in Linux (openSUSE) and Windows Vista x64, and it works really fine, splitting in 4gb zip encrypted files so I can burn them. There's a "incremental backup" feature as well. I save these files in Idrive's and Dropbox's monitored folders.