[jstevewhite]

I'm not sure that you can preserve all these files for generations to come. Consider that today's filetypes (PEF, DNG, jpgs, etc) are likely to be replaced in the future and if not converted to the new standard at the time the shift happens, you are bound to loose the ability to read them

The same holds true for the media used to archive the files.

Filetype conversion doesn't strand images. Modern software can read most image types that have ever existed, from gif to targa and beyond. Fortunately, reading most images is fairly trivial once you understand the format, and it's a solved problem for most software, meaning essentially zero cost to include support.

You have a point about media. We have to migrate the media ourselves; that's part of any backup strategy.

[rjg]

All, I have given this question alot of consideration as we have photos of our children and family events which I would hate to loose.

I essentially maintain three copies of everything using a piece of software called Crashplan. I actually opted for the premium version which keeps track of all changes to my primary machine and every 15 minutes it backs up those changes.

So in esence I have the primary copy on the machine, a copy on an external hard drive, and an offsite copy, each of which gets updated every 15 minutes.

-Robert