How long do you keep your files?

[Repairman]

As I sit in my new office staring at boxes of CD's containing 20 years of retouched files I was wondering how long you guys keep stuff. It's hard to throw away images that took hours/days of time and (just like finding stuff in the garage at home) you wonder if they may come in handy again. They won't of course. I am biting the bullet and cutting most of them up - as is the way of things, I now anticipate a call from a client desperate to locate an old ad image from the '90s. I have kept a few though; old habits die hard!

ps. Anyone who would like dozens of empty CD cases can pm me.
Might be an old Formac ProNitron 21" monitor (separate RGBSync connectors) going free. Always kept as a spare so not over used.

[mistermonday]

I moved all the contents of my mountain of CDs onto a hard drive before trashing them. Even if you don't get any requests for the orig photos you can end up with a huge library of elements that can be used for repair and restoration purposes. FYI, CDs are not the greatest media for archiving purposes as they degrade over time, moreso than other media.
Regards, Murray

[Repairman]

Haha - 20 years ago CD'S were the future Murray. It took 40 mins to write any size file and they cost £5 each. My early early work is on 9 inch tapes - of course nothing exists to view those anymore! Anyway, all my work is for ad agencies and has a very short shelf life so I could dump the lot really - but there is always that doubt!

[ftp-Jeff]

2 years... Then I contact client to let them know they will be destroyed, unless they want to pay me to keep em.

Jeff