If you use virtual disk in VM-s, then if it become infected, you can easily recreate the virtual disk. If there's no other factors (network share, shared folders between VM and host, virtual disk not...

Use DISM /Capture-Image function. Simple to use (if you like CLI), and can backup the OS (and others too). Also can make the pendrive bootable (WinPE, boot.wim etc), so you can easily restore it too.

LTSC is a different kind of animal. You have 2 options: download and install 1903 (which is not LTSC) to use the new features or stay with LTSC.

Who doesn't make it work: Is the boot/installation set to EFI ? I suspect this feature not work well on legacy boot.

I want to copy the "Windows" partition from one drive to another drive inside same computer/laptop.

I made a wim image with dism, and applied on the another drive's partition, also added entry for...