this is a cool topic, i always have this paranoia from the days of dial-up.. after downloading, i'll make a folder & throw the installers in it. after a while, sub-folders will appear categorizing them and eventually as folder gets bigger & bigger, i'll just burn them to a CD.. as the installers are deleted, i'll be relying on a disc cataloging program to index all these CDs and find out the contents in each of them.. 
-lanux128
Pretty much the case with me, too. I make a sub-folder for each installer, modify the installer name to include a version number, and add a (or use the vendor-supplied) .diz for my cataloguer. I might also throw in a couple of useful reference documents or whatever. When the HD folder reaches DVD size, off go the files.
During the past couple of years I've sent the same material to external HD's. These days HD costs are an all-time bargain (as recently as 2001 it cost me $770 each for 18GB SCSIs, whereas I recently added a couple of 500's to my system for under $300 a piece -- not SCSI, though). For the first time in my computing life I find that I have more drive space than I'm likely to fill in the near future.
Overall, it must take a lot more time to save this stuff than it would to source it again. I've found, however, that when I need something I need it
NOW and then a local copy will save the day. Also, my location means that I have to use satellite internet -- which is prone to outages -- or fall back to dial up. Inevitably, when I do need something it is at a time when internet access is at its worst.
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