Safe storage

I use this rosewill enclosure with a hard drive for backups:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... $20.
It is reasonably fast with usb3.0 and has an on/off switch. I leave it connect, but off until I want to do a backup.
You can put any 3.5" drive in it that you want.
Hard drives will have a return rate of about 2%, and I expect most failures will happen upon first usage.
Here is a link to some statistics:
http://www.behardware.com/articles/843-6/components-ret...

SSD's seem to fare better, particularly for Intel which is <1%
http://www.behardware.com/articles/843-7/components-ret...
But, be prepared to pay $1.50-$2 per gb for one.
External 2.5" enclosures are not expensive, but are usually usb2.0 attached.

Or, you could look for an external raid capable enclosure. The concurrent failure of two raid-1 hard drives is really very small.

Lastly, every once in a while, I will copy my photos to a dvd and store it in a safe deposit box.

I use these......pop drives in and out.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...