I began scanning all of our photos a few years ago. I scan them at the highest resolution possible and do not compress them (don't store them as JPG). Our photos are stored in multiple places. There is a copy on my desktop computer which has a RAID 1 mirror setup (2 drives with same exact data on it). If one drive fails, I replace it and rebuild the RAID, no lost photos. I have the same setup in a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device. I also have a copy on my laptop.
The desktop stays at the house, the NAS and Laptop come with us when traveling. I make regular backups of my desktop and laptop computers. We also travel with a digital photo frame.
-Michael