I file all my photos under "My Pictures" in a directory named by date and content (as much as possible)
e.g.
2005-08-13 Normandy Monday
2005-08-14 Normandy tuesday
.....
2005-09-16 Daniel Rose School
These I copy to
a) DVD RW at regular intervals
b) A stand-alone hard drive
That way all my back ups are identical. I've never bothered with catalogues and things because I'm too inconsistent over software. In other words, I'm disorganised!!!
I only use Elements organiser / album on my desktop; my laptop it isn't worth it.
I suppose if I was a pro, I'd use pro software for cataloguing so I can do proper IPTC data etc...
Howard