Depends on how you do it. “External metadata” could be as simple as an ASCII text file containing the filename, then a tab, then a short description, separated by newlines. That’ll remain readable for as long as the file exists.
But yeah, “archiving” isn’t something you do once and forget about it. It’s something that you have to actively maintain, as a process. If you don’t want to do that yourself, then you hire someone to do it for you, which is what cloud storage services are.
And of course, there’s no reason you can’t have multiple copies of everything: A cloud service, and a personal HD you swap out every few years, and a stack of DVDs, etc.
There are plenty of free open-source RAID systems out there.
Yes, but they aren’t. It’s some .db file from Mac shareware software that stopped being made in 2008, and if you’re really lucky it’s in a standard database format, and not some proprietary thing they invented.
Yes, a text file with metadata would be good. Even putting pictures in directories named “Baby Phils bar mitzvah 2011” are going to make a huge difference if you ever go back to look at the images.
I don’t think people just accidentally put things on a RAID. There is going to be some thought, even if it is just buy whatever Synology is on sale this week.
The point (to me, at least) with keeping things on a RAID is that it is a live system. At some point the RAID will be upgraded, and all of the files will move to the new one.
I have done this with all of my genealogical work. I also take photos of cemeteries in my area and have thousands of photos of tombstones.
I have all my files in three places. Most on the computer HD, and two external drives. I do most of my work on my computer so every so often I just copy to a HD and then copy to the second HD. I haven’t been as good about it lately, but I really haven’t gotten a lot of new information. I used to keep one at work until covid happened, I should probably bring one back.
I did find that for organization of files I keep them by main person in the photo. I will put all of the people in the photo in the file name, I found it’s better than putting them in the EXIF as I have found some programs don’t always pull that info up properly. Since I do a lot of genealogy work I name my files by LASTNAME first name, and done by maiden name. I also have folders for each direct ancestor and all the documents/photos go in there.
I will probably just keep upgrading to new systems when they come out, though you can still get floppy drives I’m sure one could still be able to read the HD I have now 20-30 years from now so long as the drive still works.