[QUOTE=byjamesderuvoDHQ]A colleague of mine once told me that if you only have one copy of the backup, you don't really have a backup. And unless you have an off site backup, you're backups aren't really all that safe. For instance, one guy I know uses Carbonite. Another I know, mails DVD Data discs to his mom weekly. It doesn't help to have an external hard drive backup if the house burns down and takes both with it.
QUOTE]

i agree with the "having backups in different locations" just to be safe i have my pictures on an external harddrive at my house as well as on DVD. i have a stack of DVDs at my parents house as well, along with another external harddrive. i give them new discs to add to the collecton there every week or so. and every couple weeks i bring my external there to copy onto the other external (they only live 15 minutes away, or i wouldn't be there as often).

i don't trust DVDs anymore either. i've had a couple discs end up with unreadable images even though they were stored in near perfect conditions. i still use them as backups (kind of as a last resort), but external harddrives are the main backups.

and external harddrives are so cheap these days that you can't afford not to have one at your own place and one at a friend or relative's place