Re:Print (Score 1)

As indicated by others, the only truly archival storage form for photos is acid free photo paper. The ability to read most magnetic storage media formats over a significant period of time is non-existent and the media degrades with time. Neither of our current computers have drives to allow old tapes or floppies to be read and the next ones might not read CD-ROMs. Even with photo paper media, to truly insure the continued existence of the images, it is necessary to have at least two copies stored in very different places. However, paper storage doesn't provide an answer for videos. I once got a call from a person who was widely known as "Mr. DEC" asking whether we were still running our old VAX 11-785 as a laboratory data acquisition system. A guy in Canada wanted to retrieve the data that his PhD dissertation was based on, and the data was on an old 12 inch floppy disk. The old VAX had a 12" floppy drive on the console. Unfortunately for the guy in Canada, the 11-785, which had been the last computer of that vintage still running in the Country, was lying in pieces on the floor until we were sure that the PC based replacement was going to function correctly in all cases. My solution was to acquire a 2 terabyte (mirrored - 4 TB total) Seagate BlackArmor NAS 220 - NAS server (~ $400 when I bought - less now), configure it in the RAID 1 (Mirror) mode and mount it on the wireless network router. Most images, videos, etc. are shared with family members so there is distributed storage. The NAS also provides backup for our other data. Higher capacity models are available. The disks spin down when the system isn't being used to save energy.