Before the external hard drive being introduced to me, i used to store all my photos to cd. That's the only way i can save them and not to load up my computer. And besides they are not as big files like what i have now since i am using a DSLR and takes big file in just one picture. But when i got my very first external hard drive and when i about to transfer all my pictures in it, the computer could not read the files that was being stored there and i panicked because i really thought that i would lose all those pictures i got in it. Good thing i was able to retrieve it and finally transferred it to my external hard drive.
Anyway, i also thought i could not trust cd anymore. But when i happened to stumble into a website that does the photo scanning services, i am again happy and gained trust to the cd. In fact, just to make sure i have to back up my storage from my EHD by doing the photo scanning. You can never tell what's gonna happen and if ever i lose or break one thing where i saved all my photos, at least i still got some cd to the rescue.