BleepingComputer.com: Question on the best storage deviece for Photo's

I had a question. I want a good way to store my photo's. I have been putting them on disk (max size 700 MB) I was thinking about buying a 16 GB flash drive for $ 40 or should I spend around $100 for a 320 GB external hard drive. I read that the external hard drives no matter what the brand can die at some point and you will lose all your information. I know there are on line storage companies that for a monthly fee will back up all your data.

Will a flash drive long term be more dependable then an external hard drive?

Is the price of an on line storage company worth it and are they fool proof with once in a life time photo's?

Or is there another way to go?

Any info will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Jeff

I'd prefer an external harddrive, I've had my WD for about a year now and it's still going strong, even though the drive itself sucks alot. I think you're best bet is to go with an external hard drive.

Thank you for the response.

No problem!

Redundancy, redundancy, redundancy.

I back up my irreplacable pics/videos on flash drives as well as DVDs (Verbatims). The files on DVD have generous Par files as well to fix possible data corruption. Hard drives will die, flash drives aren't as permanent as you would hope, DVDs can deteriorate. Maintain 3 redundant copies.

I would have no problem with online/offsite storage, as things like fires, floods, earthquakes, and hurricanes can destroy data as effectively as a simple hardware or media failure.

isnt the life of a dvd round about 20 years?

I always keep a copy of my pictures on my Hard Drive, if they are really important I'll put them on the external HD, and alot of them end up on FB or Photobucket if not both sites. Of course I don't take that many pictures. My grandma buys a new SD card every time she fill one up, then locks them and tapes them up in the original packaging (after copying to her PC of course). Think I'll get her an External HD for x-mas.

I also keep them on a hard drive.

I use hard drives in the same manner that others use external drives or DVDs, etc.

I have an excessive number of drives and it's quite easy to store files on them and disconnect/store them in the containers they arrived in.

Louis