The last time I had a computer built for me I asked for an extra hard drive just for all my files such as embroidery designs, patterns, personal files, taxes, etc. About every 6 months or so I back up there files onto an external hard drive just in case I need to take them to my laptop plus in case the 2nd hard drive crashes I have a backup of most of my files. Now that I think about it I should back up the hard drive.

I also have an external floppy drive for those floppy disks. Most all my designs have been placed onto the 2nd hard drive but you never know what can happen these days.

I have all of mine on cd's, labeled in categories.
All USB flash drives will eventually go bad because their internal memory chips can only be used a finite number of times. ... Since every other component on USB flash drives can be prone to failure, another vital part of the device is likely to fail long before the memory fails from overuse. Most people agree their lifespan is 10 years or so...
lifespan of CD (read-only, such as an audio CD) 50 to 100 years,CD-RW (erasable CD) 20 to 50 years