I have been scanning personal documents and carrying them in my bob for years. Best format for me is pdf. There are many stand alone pdf "compilers" available. I find the encryption feature to be valuable. Without a password, they can not be opened by any casual means. What a treasure trove of stuff for identity theft. Also, pdf is readable on almost any pc. Everyone has it so no unusual software is needed, although I keep a pdf reader on one of the cd's.

I keep them in one of those AOL metal mailers that were so common a few years ago. Holds 5 or 6 cd's depending on how you store them. Lots of data!

Living is a small RV, we have omitted most paper storage anyway so making copies of important (mostly personal stuff like photos and other memories) is a routine task.

I was using CD-RW, but have switched to plain CD's cause I found it easier to run these on most older machines. The CD-RW's need a special program where the plain CD's run on anything.

I strongly recommend this concept. When we have to "run for it", leaving everything behind, not knowing if the rig will survive, its nice to have that CD collection in the BOB.

...nomad...