I have a large amount of pictures from various trips I've taken and a lot of project files from school that I use for my portfolio. Is there a reliable/permanent way to store my information? From what I hear DVD's will degrade (i'm not impressed with how they've performed thus far anyway), I've had HD's go out on me, and flash's are too small. Is there a semi-cheap yet reliable way to back my information up? Reliability is the big deal, i don't mind paying a bit of money for the service. recommendations?
You might entertain an online backup solution. Basically you send the data up over the internet and it's kept securely and redundantly (i.e. the data gets backed up and replicated across multiple servers in the cloud) by the host. Mozy is a popular one.
You do both or more, and you verify often. That's how I view it. Make multiple DVD's, keep them in separate places. Same goes with HDDs. If you have 4 copies, it's hard to have them all fail before you reproduce again. Not easy, but you want certainty. HDD's and DVDs are cheap nowadays.