For some time I have had a nagging thought that I really MUST upgrade my backup plan. By upgrade, I mean "actually HAVE a useful backup."
My desktop, Bertha, has three hard drives, C:, D:, and E:, as one might rationally expect.
Again, as one would expect, C:, an SSD, holds the operating system (Win10 because I can't upgrade to Win11 for some inscrutable reason having to do with Secure Boot. If I try to enable Secure Boot in my BIOS, it barfs.) It also holds any drivers and programs that refused to let me install to the D: drive.
D: has work product and programs that did allow me to install them there (saving space on the OS's drive.) E: has my music library and various ebooks and videos. Lest you think I am a complete idiot, the work product is all backed up to a smaller external drive. My "backup software" consists of me dragging and dropping files to the smaller external drive on a schedule of "whenever I get worried enough to do it."
C: drive is nominally 500 Gb, D is 2Tb, E: is 1Tb. Of course, none of them is actually that big because marketing departments are overpaid, lying, thieving scoundrels who make the Somali pirates look like Campfire Girls. But, let's not dwell on that right now.
This morning, I got a 4Tb external drive. Ideally, I'd like some backup software that will allow me to recover very quickly from any of the hard drives dying, which I think means I need to clone the C: and D: drives to the external drive. Is this possible?
Given my possibly unrealistic demands, what backup software do I want? Obviously, freeware if it will do the job. Otherwise, I'd want something reasonably priced with a perpetual license; the subscription model is bad and wrong and should be gently but firmly killed with fire.