Hi Bastet.
After much researching I decided Macrium is a bit advanced for me. I need something simple. It's not that I couldn't learn how to use it, I'd just rather not have to take the time. I need something I can just run with - something created specifically for non-techies like me.
I've been searching for nearly 3 weeks now, and last night I finally found software I really like. It's new - just came out two months ago. It's Synology C2 Backup for individuals. The only thing it doesn't have, from what I can tell, is 2FA. I can live with that. They'll probably add it at some point as at least one of their other products has it.
But, other than that, it's got it all. It will save everything on my PC to the cloud (it's own internal cloud - 300GB or 2TB) - files and folders, apps, OS, everything. It's got encryption on both the client and server side, and at rest. It's got incremental back-ups. And it will even save everything from an external drive, though that won't be necessary in my case as my external drive is currently empty.
Also, it's easy to cancel the service if I ever want or need to. That's another thing that's important to me. In looking for a good cloud storage/backup solution I've found that with many of them, if you want to cancel you have to contact support. And often that's sending an email and waiting for someone to get back to you. That doesn't sit well with me. So I like that with this company, I can cancel the service from inside my account.
My only concern with C2 Backup is support. I see a knowledge base and a community forum, but no email, chat or phone support. However, from their main site I can find these things, just not for this particular product.
So, I emailed their sales department to ask if they provide this type of support. I have received a confirmation email that a ticket has been opened, which is a good sign. We'll see how long it takes them to get back to me and what they say.
If I do like their answer, I'll sign up for their free trial of the product. Amazingly, it's a free 90 day trial! I've never seen such a long trial anywhere!
Also, I would have my choice of keeping my data in the US or in Frankfurt.
So, this would completely solve my cloud problem. Then, I would just need to get an image on my external drive, and all my files too. Then I'd be covered whether my PC boots or not, and it would just be a matter of keeping the external drive backed up regularly and storing it in a safe place.
I really hope this solution works. Synology looks like a solid company. They do business with some very large businesses I recognize. I actually came across them earlier in my search, but the individual solution wasn't easy to find on their website and I missed it. So I dismissed them as more for enterprise companies.
Anyway, I'll post here again as to what I learn from Synology. I really hope this is my answer!
