Old school archival techniques require a lot of time, storage space and filing systems. This may still be the preferred method if a warehouse is available for such a purpose. Most individuals though do not have a protected warehouse for their personal papers and documents. Some very real world risks to these documents are fires and water damage due to flooding.
Storing crucial insurance and legal documents in a fireproof safe doesn't guarantee that they won't be damaged. The small fireproof safes available for purchase at local retailers are only rated to withstand up to around 1500 degrees Fahrenheit for approximately 30 minutes. Many fires can quickly exceed this temperature and damage the contents without actually igniting the contents.
Flooding is another instance that poses risks to important documents. Any paper document will be ruined and indecipherable from even brief encounters with flood waters. Copies of these documents stored off site may not be damaged, but may prove to be impractical if there are a lot of documents to store.
The purpose is not to scare any individual, but to show how a false sense of security can ruin emergency planning. The preferred solution to storing not only crucial financial and legal documents, but family papers, pictures, and children's schoolwork is to scan each document and submit these digital copies so that they can be stored on CD or DVD for permanence. How will saving these papers onto DVD prevent the permanent loss of information?
Once all of the important information has been replicated or duplicated onto multiple CD or DVD discs, these multiple copies should be stored off site in no less than two separate places. A family member that lives in another location can store a small DVD disc whereas they may not find it acceptable to store file boxes of papers for you. Another recommended storage place, although it may seem old school, is a safety deposit box. Bank safes are perhaps the best location anywhere. It would be much less expensive to have a small safety deposit box housing a DVD than a storage locker sized safety deposit box for copious amounts of files. The best part of having information replicated on CD or DVD is that it can be encrypted should the financial or legal records ever get misplaced or stolen. From any angle, the information stays safely accessible only to yourself.
Some individuals would recommend other avenues of backing up important information such as online hosting or USB thumb drives. Online hosting of information is useful, but preventing non-authorized access to that information is a very real concern. No online hosting site is 100% secure. If the site does not backup all information sufficiently, then information may be at risk. USB thumbdrives are very portable and good for transporting or storing data, but are vulnerable to moisture unlike CD and DVDs. At this point DVD and CD replicating is the best option overall for creating backups of any information that may need to be stored for protection and posterity. Perhaps in another 10 to 15 years a better alternative will be available, but it won't be as inexpensive.
For more information and guidance about DVD authoring and duplication, visit http://www.benchmarkmultimedia.com. Benchmark Multimedia specializes in economical, accurate, and timely production of DVDs, CD-ROMs, Flash Memory cards, and more. Their site is a wealth of information on media replication, duplication, and distribution.
Daniel Elliott is an independent contractor who authors articles and media on a variety of topics for diverse audiences. WebDrafter.com, Inc. (http://www.webdrafter.com) produces Website design, hosting, and search engine marketing services for many of the clients, industries and markets related to the articles and media authored by Dan Elliott. If you would like Dan Elliott to ghost write or pen an article for you or your company, please contact him with your specifications.
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