What's best way to store computer photos/data?CD's  last only 2-5 years?Portable hard drive?
436833
CDs do not last for only 2-5 years. A properly written and stored CD will last thousands of years.
635570
the best makes are western digital ore seagate, seagate usually give a 5 year warranty. this is important very important. as drives break down more than people think.\nliteon is good dvd drive, benq is not so reliable, samsung is good, hp is good. lg is good but don't last. also try get a good speed. 16x upwards\n\nalways by new or from a reliable source
23411
use the windows CD or also called back-up cd
890124
Newer ones last about 5 years due to the maufactuers trying to make loads in a short space of time.\n\nI have had a 2gb hard drive since 1996 and it is still working!!!
952661
You will run out of room in about 2 years. Get a 120G or higher now. \n\nI have over 2500 MP3's and tons of programs on my 120G, and it's just over half full.\n\nDon't forget to make frequent backup's of all your stuff. Hard drives do crash. \n\nI've created a folder just for stuff I want to keep. Every month my stuff (Outlook info, address book, etc.) gets backed-up to this folder. Every six months I burn this folder to several DVD-RW's. I use RW's so I can rotate them.
1007045
You would have to get some new hardware, which could be very costly.  A cheaper way would be to get a Flash drive.  I use mine for files I don't access very often so I don't always carry it.
427530
um most pcs will run theirs down in 5 years but i have seen them last UPTO 7 years chances are you will throw your comp out before it dies
520490
You can purchase a large hard drive (e.g. 200 GB or bigger) and attach it to an USB 2.0 external case.  You then can use the drive as external drive to store all your important files.  You can use Norton Ghost (2003 version is great!: it's fastest because it works through DOS) to clone your hard drive to CD-Rs or DVDs, thus creating "recovery" CDs in case your boot drive dies.
424155
external is better.because it can be used for other computers too.\nyou can use it as a large cooldisk.
528637
There are companies that float secured storage spaces for a fee, and you can connect securely to them if you have a secure internet connect. There you keep your files until needed eg CSCS. (http://www.cscs.ch/a-display.php?id=24)\n\nSince you did not specify why you not like a PORTABLE storage device, Another option is of course to deploy a non-portable storage device like external HARD DRIVES which are also USB compatible, easy to use and have HUGE capacities of sometimes >300GB. \n\nYou can also write your data to DVD's, and they come with quite a lot of capacity too these days.
1146794
i think you are on the right track with your idea of portable hard drive.that way you'll be protected from any repercussion from your work as it is on your device and not there's.as far as your question goes none to my knowledge.
408655
you can use roxio and put a bunch of different ones in effortlessly.  or just right click on your selection and send to a cd drive....picasa is also good to make photo cds w/
1047108
get a NAS (network attached storage) device case.  hawking technologies makes a decent one.  basically you just enclose your hard drive in the NAS case.  \n\ntake your hard drive out of the current enclosure and put it into the NAS.
1013301
a tao is right! Gerry needs to stick to fixin sandwiches! If you get 5 years out of a drive you are doing good. The medium that stores data on a hardrive is the same material used on cassettes. Iron oxide or rust in laypeoples terms.
1125238
reformat your hard drive, or just get a new, larger hard drive (the second is the best)\n\nyou can do a web search on line on how to do this if you don't know, print off all the instructions before you start to work though lol and know you will loose all the info on your current drive so if you have any photos or documents or anything you want to save be sure to back them up on a floppy or CD or something.
60593
go to start, accessories, system tools, disk cleanup.\n\nI also like the program crap cleaner to clean the harddrive. you can find it at filehippo.com. \nAlso to backup your harddrive, you need a dvdrw drive or an external hard drive or cdrw drive to copy your files to another storage space. i recommend the dvds or another hard drive because you'll need a lot of cds! then just burn your files like you would a music cd/dvd.
1113927
Burn all music to cd, make it an audio cd not a data one, but obviously don't bother with music you already have on commercial CD's elsewhere.  Burn all photos to cd but organise them into folders and name each file appropriately (e.g. seaside_sandcastle.jpg - I always use an underscore in cd filenames, force of habit!).  \n\nMy reason for using CD's rather than anything else is that it's a format that every computer can read, and having the photos as individual files means that you're not relying on some piece of software which probably won't exist in five to ten years.   You may also be able to view them in a consumer DVD player.  DVD's may hold more data (and for extra backup sake it may be an idea to fill a DVD or two with your pictures as well) but not all computers have a DVD drive.  Audio CD's will be readable in any computer too, and also your home Hi-Fi; you could keep masses of mp3's backed up to a separate CD or DVD.