Always use external hard media to archive your content Zips, Rars, and Exe installers.  And use a cataloguing software to find them quick and easy.  Then you can re-install when you need.

I burn to DVD or CDRom.  Better to lose 4GB of data if one DVD is destroyed, than all 100+GB stored on one external hard disk drive.

(My recent experience with corrupted files on my personal and private Amazon S3 cloud storage, also informs me that it is WA-AY too early for me to store my precious content online.  Not to mention that many digital content providers may need to update their ToU to reflect the movement towards cloud storage options.)

 

Eternal Hobbyist