Re: (OT) Windows 10 won't back up to an internal HD?

On 6/8/2024 5:06 AM, RonB wrote:

My wife's Windows 10 computer (Inspiron, not my choice) came with a 256GB
SSD and a 1TB hard drive. Stupid me, I assumed that Dell would set up it up
so the program data would save on the TB hard drive and the applications
would run from the SSD. Nope. Everything ran on the SSD and all data was
saved there. The hard drive is just a drone, sitting there and doing
nothing. (I just discovered this.)
 So after about three years, her computer slowed way down. I assumed she
needed more memory and bought a 32GB SIM (so she now has 40GBs of RAM).
Still slow. Then I realized that she had filled up her SSD. It actually had
only 25MBs free tonight. It's a wonder it ran at all.
 So I ordered a 1TB SSD, and tonight cloned it in an external enclosure and
installed it. Worked well (the SSD came with Acronis True Disk). I saw that
Acronis had a backup utility as well, so figured I would back up the new SSD
to the practically unused hard drive... and I found out Microsoft doesn't
like backing up to an internal hard drive. Why does it have this limitation?
 For those of you who use Windows, is there any way to make Windows 10 back
up to an internal hard drive? I've seen something about making the internal
drive a "network drive," which seems kind of convoluted. Is there any
application that overrides this (to me) senseless limitation? And why does
Windows 10 have this limitation — is there a logical reason for it?
(Apparently Windows 7 didn't have this limitation.)
 Kind of ranting. Sorry. But I would like to see my wife's internal hard
drive set up for backups — if possible.

FWIW I use 3 drives:
  C internal NVMe   OS, boot and installed apps
  D internal SSD    personal files, downloads, binaries
  E external HDD    copy of D
Every evening or more often I copy new/changed files from D to E.
I recommend getting her used to doing manual backups - every day - of new files and changes she made that day.  Losing even 1 day of work is a lot.
How well does she understand and maintain a separation between program code and personal data?  If she stores personal files in the same folders as the executables (usually C:\Program Files or C:\Program Files (x86)), you'll have to separate them.
If all her personal data - all the info you want to backup - is already in C:\Users\<name>\, then just drag and drop that entire folder to the backup drive.
2nd easiest is copy one folder at a time to the backup drive:
C:\Users\<name>\Contacts
C:\Users\<name>\Desktop
C:\Users\<name>\Documents
C:\Users\<name>\Downloads
C:\Users\<name>\Music
C:\Users\<name>\Pictures
C:\Users\<name>\Videos
This assumes she used those folders as intended.
Also, from time to time take a screenshot of Control Panel | Programs and Features, to see what apps she has installed, that she might want to reinstall in the future.