Rookie at backing up - questions about cloning - using EaseUS

Newbie here and first post. I have a Dell Precision 5510 laptop with a 512 GB SSD running Windows 10. I'm also old, so please be patient. Up until a few months ago, when I bought EaseUS Todo Home, I had never properly backed up my computers. I'd make copies of files onto a portable drive, but never properly backed up the system, because I did not fully understand how to do it. So, I gave it a shot with EaseUS and I have successfully performed a couple of backups of my laptop. But, I really want to clone my SSD so I have a fully functioning spare disk in case my original takes a dump.

I may be wrong, but as I remember from when I was working and talking to our IT support person, it used to be that when you wanted to clone your computer hard drive, you had to have an exact match of that drive....make, model, size, etc., in order to create a clone. I think I was told that the controller had to match, among other things. When I clone my SSD, I would like to use a 1 TB drive instead of another 512 GB drive. QUESTION 1 - Can I use a 1 TB SSD for my clone, or must it be a 512 GB drive?

QUESTION 2 - Must I use a Dell-provided SSD, or will any SSD with the same form factor work?

QUESTION 3 - If I am able to successfully clone my 512 GB drive to a 1 TB drive, and I switch them out so the 1 TB drive now becomes my permanent drive in my laptop......as long as I have less than say.......475 GB stored on my 1 TB drive, can I then start using my old 512 GB drive as my backup clone or must I use a drive that is at least 1 TB in size going forward, if I want to clone the 1 TB drive? If I can use the 512 GB drive as my new clone, do I need to separately reformat the 512 GB drive to use it as the new clone or does the cloning operation itself automatically format the drive?

Question 1 - you can clone to a 1 TB SSD.

Question 2 - it only has to be the same form factor. I'm assuming you are talking about a 2.5" SATA SSD. If you are talking about an M.2 SSD, there are more considerations that must be taken into account: SATA v. NVMe, and the key type.

Question 3 - As long as there is space on the backup drive the exceeds the used space on the operating drive, you can clone. The cloning software should have an option to delete existing partitions on the backup drive you are cloning to.

Looking at the Dell 5510 Specs, it has both an M.2 slot and a space for a 2.5" hard drive or SSD. If you have an M.2 SSD installed now, I would look at install the spare/backup SSD in the 2.5" drive bay. Although the problem with cloning is that you would end up with a disk signature collision and the disk signature on the backup drive would need to be changed every time you cloned.

NavyLCDR, thank you very much. The drive in it now is an M.2 SSD, so you've really given me the info I needed to know and I'll just go with a Dell device so I don't have a problem. Thanks again.