One of the keys to any successful archive of images: Backup your images, then back them up elsewhere, keep a backup offsite and update it regularly. Oh, and then back everything again for good measure.
If earning a living is what you do with your images, how can you go to sleep at night without ensuring your livelihood is not safely "locked up"?
Thanks to Peter Krogh for reinforcing this concept in his training...I realised I had slipped a bit and bought an extra terrabyte drive and got cracking.
Peter's book is the bible of how to keep your house in order: The Dam Book