I get nagged regularly about backing up all the photos to something. There are a number of ways to secure data. The cheapest is to write it all to CD. If you do this, the best way is uncompressed files. If you opt for compressed, then make sure that it is a self extracting file. Having dumped all that data onto CD, secure them in a cool dry place. A firesafe is always a good bet. Benefit of going down the CD route is that CD readers are likely to be around for quite some time. SD cards are OK, but are more sensitive. USB sticks are neat and will hold several Gb of data , but I wouldn't bank on them as a backup device. The pricier option is go and buy another HDD and slap it in a casing Then connect it as an external drive and just do a full image copy of your hard disk.