Storing my digital records

I have 13 years of BMD - Census - Parish - Newpaper - Photo - Video - Notepads and the list goes on of all the records I have collected every year I have to get a bigger HDD, I am worried that I could easily lose this if the HDD malfunctions so I have copies on other HDD and DVDs would anyone have any methods I could use to make sure my files are safe?

Any help would be of great help.

Kind Regards,
Tom.

 

I don't think there is anywhere completely safe. Using HDDs is a good idea, but then we have to remember that such media gets outdated so we have to make sure we keep up with the newest stuff. SSHD seems to be the latest...
Next thing is that a copy has to be kept somewhere else. If the house/office whatever burns down we need those years of research to be preserved.

Then there is cloud storage. Maybe a good idea, but wuala - which I thought was a very reliable service, has recently announced that it it closing down, and all users are urged to remove their files.

Looks like there is no completely 'safe' place. I use the 'belt and braces' system and keep a copy with me at all times, have an extra copy on another machine and use a cloudstore.

 

Thanks Patzy for all your help

Kind Regards,
Tom