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#11
Caleb, glad to hear you're a happy camper again!
You can set Google drive to auto backup photos, etc. but keep in miind Google free storage is only 15GB.
A good external USB drive is a good choice and gives you local control of your data. Newegg.com, Amazon.com, etc. have 1TB drives for about $70-$80. Stay away from 3TB drives, they are fritzy!
Macrium and Acronis et al, are also choices but only paid version of Macrium will allow image restore from boot. The built-in (native) File History and System Image backup work fine. Even if the drive is not connected, file history will remember changes/new file and do copies when drive is attached.
I would suggest separate partitions on an external drive (see tutorial), one for System Image Backup ONLY and one for File History and any other data you want to save. This keeps the block-level backup for the system image and it's shadow copies isolated from all else. You can save many, many system images on an external drive. Typical size first time is 25-35 GB. Windows does not create 25-30 GB each time, it's managed through system shadow copies (different subject). Typical image backup time is 15-20 mins.
Cloud (offsite) or Local (external drive you control) is your choice. BUT, you do need to have a backup regimen you're comfortable with and works.
Have a good one!