Stuck on startup animation after updating windows

I have made a backup image on my HDD just in case.

Disk images are best stored on external removable media which can then be stored separately and offline.

That way they are not subject to system failure, viruses, ransomware.

When you say 'image' I hope you used e.g. Macrium Reflect (free/paid) - highly and endlessly recommended here- Aomei Backupper, Easeus Todo Backup and O&O Diskimage are other such products.

And of course, you should image all partitions comprising Windows (4 for UEFI) regularly so you have a fairly recent image as all data would be replaced with an older version if restoring it.

These programs allow you to create a backup job that manages a pattern of
base (initial) image
+ a sequence of differential / incremental images according to rules you are prompted to set, so once set up, it's quite easy.

That's a 'how long is a piece of string' question to some extent, but yes, you need to know how large an external disk to use of course.

Consider:
a. the base (first/initial) image of (e.g.) the 4 partitions of a typical UEFI installation is the largest of the se of images.
Image files are a compressed copy of the used space in the partitions imaged.
Whilst the compression level can be set, there's usually not much difference.
Clearly how much you gain with compression depends- for example, you might have 10s of Gbs of photos on C: as well.

Typically allow 50% of the used space on C:

Then on the same backup disk aim to keep, say, 3-5 differential images.
(Macrium free does not offer incremental imaging: Aomei Backupper does. Incremental images are smaller than differential images as a diff image represents the difference between 'now' and the base image).

The retention rules you set when creating the first image manage your backup space automatically.

So allow at least the same size disk for your image storage as the used space you plan to image- then double that to allow for the future.

And you might also have other partitions you wish to image.. so allow for those- or use a separate disk if you wish of course.

Then plan how frequently you need to create an image- this depends on how often your system is at risk from changes and how critical it is.

Remembering restoring an image means all your data is set back to the date of that image, you may wish to make separate specific provision for scheduled or synched backup of critical data.

- and if you've not got one, a large enough HDD for external backup.. maybe 2Tb for £60? (not looked recently)