I'm a netdummy so forgive me for speaking illiterate to the illiterate and literate.
If anything mechanical that utilizes a hard drive of any kind to store data is used to store bitcoin wallet files, it can malfunction. At anytime, something can go wrong.
Anything that actually has working parts to it, or anything mechanical at all, is not ever going to be a safe storage vehicle for bitcoins. That includes all forms of computers, storage drives, hard drives and mobile phones. Anything that can break or could need repair is not ever going to be a good long term storage device for bitcoins or wallet files.
I propose a special situation for wallet storage. First off, get a computer dedicated for bitcoins. I picked one up for $350 for a laptop. Getting it new is always best, that way you know it's not infected in any way. I know people sometimes pay more than $350 for a real wallet to hold fake money, so I think it's a smart investment.
Everything can malfunction, including solid state storage, a good strong electrical zap could damage it enough to make recovering the data impossible.
There are new computers that come infected, reported in the news before. So a new computer and old computer are only equally safe if they are formatted after booting from a safe bootdisk.
Then download Ubuntu onto it, then the Bitcoin client. Keep it offline 99% of the time.
Next, I'm thinking Truecrypt to encrypt the drive from being hacked. If not, then GnuPG as someone previously suggested. Somehow, this data should be able to be loaded onto a card, while encrypted. That card, containing your wallet file and bitcoins is now safe, I would imagine.
Also mentioned previously is that GnuPG has card integration with smart readers. This would , I think, by necessity, have to be readable/writable directly onto the wallet file. If anyone knows whether or not this can be used effectively and easily by their grandparents or children, please speak up.
This is completely nontechnical, for dummies and smart folks.
If there are flaws, problems, or issues that people find in this, explain away, please. People need a simple, safe way to keep bitcoins, long and short term, and currently, most solutions I have seen are not safe (trusting bitcoins to online wallets), (trusting them to computers and hard drives), and keeping them secured in networks of infinite terms most people could never understand.
Non-technical dumb people are going to use whatever OS is installed on the computer. They are not going to want to learn how to install a new OS, even if it's as simple as popping in a DVD to boot (they might even have problems getting it to boot from DVD instead of the HDD), nor are they likely to want to install yet another "mysterious" program like truecrypt/gnupg to encrypt the wallet and even less likely to buy an expensive smart card writer/reader just for this.