Jules wrote:Some of my photos and videos are up in the GB's and I don't have a DVD burner. Should I get an external hard drive? Should I add two more sticks of 256's to my motherboard (Did I even say that right?) since I have two slots open? Does that really matter? Do they have to be in pairs?
An external hard drive would probably be the easiest and most cost efficient method of backing up your machine. You could also purchase some 32GB USB keys (which are more easily moved around than an external hd) to store data on, but those are relatively expensive at this time. You'd need roughly three of them to do the job.
Adding RAM (random access memory) to your computer won't help at all. What you're looking for is more hard drive space or at least something equivalent to it. An HD (or any media that allows permanent writing capability) is ROM (read-only memory). RAM allows data to be stored temporarily and then is forgotten about once the program has finished or the computer shuts down.
Do
these CD's actually have a shelf life of 100 years like they really say? Or are they as good as the regular ones? How are they "better"?
Theoretically speaking, CDs and DVDs should be able to store information for about a century. However, no one really knows if that's true. Neither form of media have been around for 100 years and even if they had, it'd be somewhat difficult to find someone who could either prove or disprove that claim.
What is the safest, long term way to back up your files? In my case, I have a five year old Gateway with almost all of the 75GB used up.
I feel like I'm stuck in the mid 90's with all this new technology.

A five year-old PC might be an issue in the sense that it could only have USB 1.1 and not 2.0, which is currently the standard. USB 1.1 transferred files at a far slower rate than 2.0 does right now. USB 2.0 is backwards compatible with USB 1.1, but the speed cycles down to that of 1.1, so your problem remains the same -- you'll wait forever to move to files.
I'm bringing this up since nearly all peripherals connect to a PC through USB. Some camcorders may use Firewire, but that's hardly the norm.