Just as with our old photos taken 25 years ago, digital images can also fade.
Sure we can just re-print them, RIGHT!  That might be the case for your photos taken recently, but what about those taken 10 or 20 years ago?

Today we store our important documents and images on our computer hard drives.  Some of us take extra precautions and perform backups to CD's or DVD's and maybe even an external hard drive or backup service.

CD's, DVD's and external hard drives are also prone to fading away.

I'll first talk about hard drives and external hard drives:
Assuming that we do not have any mechanical failures, data that has been written to and not updated can become corrupted.  This is mainly due to the fact that the magnetic particles on the surface of the hard drive are constantly moving, although very minimal.  Over time (a long time) they can move just enough so that the data is not readable.  Data on your hard drive that has been updated or moved is less prone to this fading away problem.

CD's and DVD's also have a life span (somewhere around 20 years).  The better brands do last longer, but there are also good practices to follow that will help to lengthen the life span.

Don't write on the disks.  Regardless of the surface the ink can penetrate through and cause problems.  If you want to write on the disk then the best place is the far outer edge.  Make sure that when you burn your disks that you do not fill it up.