So what are you using for back up? I have been thinking that I need to do something like that - don’t want anything to do with cloud storage though, and I am techno-challenged ignorant all thumbs with computer.
I used a USB Flash Drive & backed up my “Documents” & “Pictures”. I keep my backups for my journal (Rednotebook), Family Legacy program, EZ Addressbook & Home Cookin’ recipe program in a ‘Backups’ folder in ‘Documents’ so I can restore data.
Funny thing, the laptop was setting off my ‘spidey sense’ - you get to know them pretty well & when they start acting a little weird, you know it. I was thinking of getting an external hard drive & using a program like Macrium Reflect, but all of that was $$ so I decided to stick with the USB flash. I figured if the laptop crashed that badly, I’d likely need a new one & would not be doing a system restore. Sure enough, that’s what happened. Other things I did - I made sure I had all the license/customer numbers/registration numbers etc. for my paid programs so I can get them reloaded on the new laptop. I printed out a phonebook from my EZ addressbook so I at least had that & I printed out my spreadsheet (updated to be current) with all my passwords & other important info I keep on it (it’s password protected). I also went through all the bookmarks on my bookmarks toolbar, pulled them up one by one & copied the links & saved it in my Rednotebook journal. Once I got that restored, I just pulled up the links & re-bookmarked everything. I also wrote down every icon on my desktop so I would know what else to load without thinking about it too hard such as OpenOffice & Foxit Reader.
So, bottom line, at a minimum back up your files like documents, pictures, backups from any programs you have. The USB flash drive I have was $20 & 64GB so it holds a lot. You can get two & alternate them or keep one offsite.
This is my first experience with Windows 10. I’m not so old I can’t learn ‘new tricks’, but I’m having to look a lot of stuff up .... also put on Classic Shell so the startup menu looks like Win 7 & I don’t have to deal with “tiles”. There’s also a lot of stuff to turn ‘off’ to maintain some sort of privacy. Sigh. The one good thing - my first laptop was an HP & I truly loved it. The replacement was a Dell & that’s the one that crashed - I won’t miss it - we were barely friends. This new one is another HP & so far, I think I’m going to love this one, too.