wrote

| Is there a way to back up, the current substantial HD apps and data
| material, to facilitate this inevitability ?
|

There are different options. I use two disks that
are mostly redundant. So if one dies suddenly I'm
covered. In combination with that, I have disk image
backups of the OS with software installed. Data is
on separate partitions. I back up data to DVDs,
USB sticks, and old hard disks. Current data like
email gets written to DVD periodically.

If you just have C drive and keep all of your data
on the Windows partition then it's much more
awkward. One bad update and you lose everything.
And it's so big that you'll need another disk in order
to back it up. Backing up Windows as an element of
backup is very wasteful these days because it's so big.
You end up backing up 10-60 GB of system files for
no reason.

I've seen a few cases where friends have hired a
tech support person and that person just sets them
up with Carbonite. You pay a fee, everything gets
backed up to their servers, and if your computer
fails you can get it all back. If you want to trust
them with your data and don't mind paying then
that might be an easy solution. Here's a sample
of what's available:

https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2288745,00.asp

I've never tried any of them. I don't know why
Carbonite is popular vs other services. I also don't
know anything about specifics. For instance, how
do you get it all back after you put in a new disk?
how does it work if you have to buy a new
computer and just want to download the data
backup? I don't know. My impression is that tech
support people are doing it because it's easy and
relatively secure. It may not cover the case of
neding to get a new computer.