I bought a few memory sticks on sale and about once very ten days to two weeks I create a directory with the date (YYYY-MM-DD) and copy all my files over to it. It's up to about 8000 files and still under 2 gigabytes. When the drive fills up, I get another drive and put the old one away in a safe place. All my short stories are on it, the duplicate of my website, my tax scans (I scanned all the old taxes) and other legal materials. Sometimes I just copy the Website and my Fiction files if I have done lots of editing or had a sudden burst of inspiration and started a new story.

I used to use CD-ROM's but my current MacBook doesn't have a CD or DVD player.

I thought of getting a CLOUD service but I can find memory sticks and zip drives cheaper than a yearly subscription.

As for scans of legal documents and tax records -- My Mother's Estate is all electronic. I only printed what I had to sign and when the Probate Lawyer and CPA needed documents like five years of old taxes and/or medical expenditures, I could fax the paper and email the PDF. The Probate Lawyer sent me

PDF's or cellphone photos of his filings and kept the originals for his file. I didn't have to run to a photocopier and dash off to the law office. Just scan the papers. Most documents can be handled electronically but not all. For that I suggest a printer and a pen with blue ink. Don't sign a legal document in black ink.

But to return to the point -- backup your files in some manner. When the computer crashes (And they all do) you save yourself a lot of grief.

I kind of do the same thing, all my pictures and stories are backed up on a second drive. I have 4 of them in my PC one is just for backup.

River