500Gb hard drives can be had for around $75 to $80. 750 Gb drives are just over $100.

2 ways:

1. Removable drive caddy. Better than bare drive sitting on table.
We keep the drive info for 3 years then erase.

2. DV tapes are labeled and placed into a full size cardboard DVD mailer.
Victor Milt passed this idea on to us. A DVD rom in paper sleeve has
all other project files to recreate the project later.

RCourtney,

I like this idea but wonder if you could share a little more info on exactly how you do it...

1 - So you have a "removable drive" unit mounted in the front of your PC so you can just plug a hard disk in... or have you found an external "Removable Drive Caddy" unit?

If I remember correctly those disk are mounted on some sort of container that has a handle... and the whole thing slides in... I assume you remove the drive itself from the slide in container and just store the bare drive itself... or do just buy a bunch of those plastic slide in containers and store the disk in those? If so what kind do you buy and where?

Is yours kinda like this one?
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=405

2 - Project Storage:

... DV Tape - Do you place all video clips for the project... raw footage, stock footage, and final render on the DV Tape... or just the final render?

... Mailer - You place the DV Tape into the DVD mailer for easy file storage and to keep all the project stuff in one place... right? Do you put the mentioned DVD in the same cardboard mailer? Worry about the tape pressing against the DVD so it deforms and wont work after months in the file cabinet?

I would be interested in a link to which DVD mailer you use...

Here is a 'slide in'
http://lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/supermediastore/cd-mailer-gif.gif

This one is more 'box like'
http://www.theethicaloffice.co.uk/images/849771.jpg

... All project files on the DVD... maybe this is where you keep all the video clips, images, audio, etc... and the Vegas veg file... so the entire project can be reloaded if a new edit is needed down the road... Right?

Thanks again for yours and all comments.

I tried the caddies and found them more work than they are worth. I currently use a bare disk adapter like this one:
http://manifest-tech.com/blog/2007/02/newertech_usb_20_universal_dri.php

I saw a docking station at Micro Center that I plan to try:
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0287567

I purchase new disks for each project (this morning I got two 750GB Seagate 7500.11 drives from NewEgg). I always use two disks per project - one as backup for the other. My current HD project is large, so I need 4 750GB disks, a main disk with a subsidiary disk mounted as a folder inside the main disk (so that I can use Synchronize It to look at the files on both disks with a single click), and the other pair as back up disks, similarly configured. Because I've invested so much time in this project, I'm getting the 3rd pair of drives so that I can retire a couple of the other drives as deep backup drives. Incidentally, I always run the backup drives from power supplies that are independent of the main computer so that a power-supply blowup won't kill all 4 drives. Everything runs off a huge UPS that generates its own 60 Hz power from lead-acid batteries.

When done with a project, I store the disks in so-called fireproof safes from Walmart. Even though disks need lower temperatures than paper to survive a fire, I figure that the thermal mass of the drives is so much greater than that of paper that the temp inside the boxes probably won't rise enough during a fire to kill the drives. I can fit a couple of dozen or so drives inside each safe.

I connect the drives to the computer with either an external USB>IDE adapter (for the old drives) - but without the box (I've found that free-air use works great if a fan is nearby and ambient temp. is controlled), or a 2' SATA cable (for modern drives).

Using hard disks to archive old projects is no longer very expensive - the pair of Seagates that I bought this morning were only $120 each. And it certainly is convenient to merely plug in the pair of drives from an old project and start editing on it again if necessary.