This is a great article on the upsides and downsides of paper and digital storage. Bottom line is to have redundant backups in every format or at least in two.
External physical hard drives:
I have multiple external hard drives that I update once a week or so and keep them in physically separate locations so even a home fire won't take them all out. You can keep one in a shed or a parked car rather than with the computer you are trying to backup. You can even keep one at the office, and I also have a table top external next to the computer that I don't keep plugged into it but allow for the weekly backup so that in the event of a crashed hard drive on the computer I don't lose the whole thing.
Cloud Storage:
Add in some online backup capability like Google Drive, Dropbox, and actual cloud backup services and you should have it covered.
Whatever you do, don't just rely on one method and especially one that is purely cloud based no matter how reliable it has been for you in the past.
Scanning your documents:
Do it regularly when you receive them and add them to a folder such as a yearly one. For example 2017. You can always create subfolders but the best way is to title your documents very well so that the search capability for files can do the job of organization for you. I have found that just having files broken down into yearly increments makes it much easier to guess where the file is held.
Another method you can also add is to do a DVD data file backup that you can use to store things like photos and personal videos in such a quantity that you might have a full copy of every family photo that exists. If these are all sharable with family members you can add redundancy by sending copies to all siblings so that in a worst case scenario you could retrieve a copy from them to make yourself one in the event of a home fire or other catastrophe.
I have also found that even a 16gb key chain USB device holds all my family records so that I keep a copy on my key chain that is encrypted.
Paper:
Sure paper is a good format for some backups such as your personally written poetry or novel, but keep in mind this format is not easily made digital again where it can be edited. Instead, have an emergency bookshelf copy for yourself say if you want to read your poetry after an EMP attack that makes all other means of finding your precious work impossible. You can then read your artistic handiwork while nibbling on a can of cold beans or sardines as you contemplate how life used to be before you revisited the 19th century. Oh, and have lots of oils lamps and lamp oil for this if it comes to it.
Audio and Video:
If what you have to worry about is video or audio I'd keep CD and DVD backups as well. Even video of items you own not only comes in handy for insurance purposes but it might serve to fill the gap of ownership if you sell it or lose it somehow.
Final Thoughts
If you don't do backups expect pain at some point in your digital life. Even if you're primarily a paper storage person it makes perfect sense to secure a digital copy as your backup in the event of a physical catastrophe such as fire, flood, theft, or just plain old loss by accident.
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