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#11
My method is similar, I have 3 disks in the system, a small boot drive for Windows and a few utilities, a larger disk for games and apps then a larger disk for personal files.
The boot drive takes a little over 2 mins to image including verifying, the image is saved to the third drive, image is taken before and after each CU or other major update but at least monthly.
The second disk I ignore, games and apps can always be re installed.
The third disk contains a folder structure that makes sense to me and all apps save files here, so pictures, documents, blender files, music etc. The files are everything I want to keep going back almost 20 years right up to stuff I was working on last night.
Once a month I plug in my external drives, one at a time, format them (this checks the media is still reliable) then I just drag across all the folders from drive 3 to make a copy, including an image of the boot drive.
The backup takes maybe an hour, including disk imaging, formatting and copying. This way I know I have a backup of all my data, from stuff I 've kept for years up to stuff I was working on the night before. No searching through files to determine which are up to date or not, just dragging folders across.
This is my Sunday morning routine while I have a coffee and read the news.
I personally don't use cloud services, I give my daughter a copy of a back up drive so it is off site.
The best backup plan should not be overly time consuming or difficult, it is all in the planning and preparation.