Clone failure with three different software programs

There is nothing wrong with making daily images of the C: drive (full weekly, differential daily) even though I feel it's overkill for me (everyone has different needs). I make a full image of my C: drive once a week after I do my full anti-malware scans and just before running updates, installing programs, and/or making major changes to my settings, etc. I've found imaging, using Macrium Reflect, to be so much more reliable than System Restore, I turned off System Restore and rely on images only. With the exception of the first image I made after setting up my machine, l have Macrium Reflect set to delete images older than 8 weeks.

I do not feel I need to keep a cloned backup of my C: drive on hand since I can restore an earlier image if needs be. If the drive (an SSD) itself dies, I could grab one of my retired 2.5" spinners and swap it out with the SSD and restore the latest image to it until I can get the replacement SSD.

Being the cheap, old bi...broad I am, I don't like to buy extras drives since I would be burning warranty while the drive sat idle. Also, the prices of drives keep dropping so I would pay more if I bought it sooner instead of later. That is also a reason I don't keep a cloned backup.

On my notebooks, however, I do keep a cloned backup on a spinner in an external enclosure since I mostly use them when I'm on the road. If the SSD I put in one should go belly up, I can try cloning back from the clone. If the SSD is too far gone to allow that, I can remove the HDD from the enclosure and swap it out with the SSD. I will fuss and fume over the slow boot times of the spinner but, at least, I won't be dead in the water. I also carry a second spinner I put images of the C: and system reserved partitions. I don't bother to backup the data since I also have it on my desktop machine and can access the data from my Carbonite.com account if necessary while on the road. Any data I add while on the road, I backup to a 32GB camera card, the second backup spinner, and a USB thumb drive. I keep the card in my purse, the spinner in my notebook case, and the thumb drive in my pocket. I used to upload to my free Amazon Cloud account as well but Amazon discontinued the free service.