Simplest backup wanted.

I have recently been worrying about my almost total lack of backup planning. Too much of my life is on my PC these days and if it goes belly up I'm in really deep poo. So its time to have another try.

In the past I have dabbled with various backup software and none of them were simple/easy enough for my feeble brain. When confronted with a page of jargon and basics that are probably well-known to competent tech people I just hit a brick wall. Thankfully I am usually able to uninstall these failures and haven't (so far) manage to mess up my W7 Pro installation. A few of you kind people have given me step by step instructions but more often than not what is expected to show up as the next stage just doesn't appear. I was wondering if there is anything new out there that I can use as a backup, either to an external drive via USB or maybe even a seperate drive installed in the tower. I was hoping to get to a state that if my main drive gets corrupted or dies I can just unplug it and connect to the other one and carry one. I guess this would have to contain the entire installation of Windows plus my drivers and data. Is this even possible? I have lots of bits of my "Documents" on different memory sticks but nothing all in one place that would give me a fresh install of W7. Is this called a clone? I don't even know where to start.

And don't even mention "the Cloud". I don't like the idea of storing anything on somebody else's server just waiting to be hacked or sold to the highest bidder.

Thanks for the suggestions. I will investigate.
Happy New Year!

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Update: Both of these look like they could be potentially easy to use.............but,
both of them offer to either Migrate or Clone. I am having trouble understanding the difference between the two choices. Any clues what they mean? I just want to copy everything on the drive that is in use (Windows installation, software, drivers, personal data, etc.) and place it on a different drive to keep it safe. Then in case of disaster I can just disconnect the dodgy drive and plug the backup one in and have a quick solution. Which choice would allow this?

I looked at the explanation in your link. It was hard going because of the speed of the presenter and I had to pause/backup/replay many times but it still left me in a state of confusion about "partitions". I was hoping that there is a software out there that will simply copy my existing drive (everything on it) and transfer it to another drive exactly as it is. In effect I would have two drives that I could plug into my computer (separately of course) and I could boot up and find everything working identically. That is my naive idea of what a backup should be. Every solution I have looked into starts with a page of options and tools that I don't understand. Perhaps I am looking for something that doesn't exist. At my age I don't have enough time left to learn all the ins and outs of computer software. I have built my own desktops over the last 20-odd years but haven't a clue what half the jargon means and have never been involved with "partitions", nor have any of my friends.
I thank you for your responses but I think I will push this problem to the bottom of my list, again, and cross my fingers.

Aardvarkly said:

I looked at the explanation in your link. It was hard going because of the speed of the presenter and I had to pause/backup/replay many times but it still left me in a state of confusion about "partitions". I was hoping that there is a software out there that will simply copy my existing drive (everything on it) and transfer it to another drive exactly as it is. In effect I would have two drives that I could plug into my computer (separately of course) and I could boot up and find everything working identically. That is my naive idea of what a backup should be...

Think of your hard drive as a house. Each partition is a 'room' in that house, and the stuff that's in each room has different jobs to do. The 'living room', the one you are familiar with and spend all your time in, is the C: partition. That's where you keep Windows and all your user files. But on its own a backup of C: is not sufficient to rebuild a working system. There's stuff in the other partitions that boots up the system and opens the door to the living room for you.

Hasleo, like most other backup software, offers the option to do a System Backup. This is a copy of every partition ('room') on your drive ('house') that's necessary to make a fully working PC.

Then you have the choice of making a clone, or a backup image.

A clone is like building a second house (drive) with all the rooms (partitions) and their contents you'd need to live there (boot up as a working PC with all your files and programs).

An image is a file that contains copies of everything from your house, so that if it burns down (drive dies) you could move into a new empty house (get a new blank drive) and restore all the partitions and their contents from the image (refurnish the house with exact copies of everything from the old one).

Although you have offered a simplified explanation, the two options still seem (to me) to be the same thing. I still don't know which one to choose for my purpose. And would probably have no idea what to do to make use of the copy/clone/image when I need it. Your input is much appreciated.

"A cloned drive is simple, if the old drive dies just remove it and replace it with the clone."
With that said, I will go with a clone. That is the result I am looking for. I just want to be able to copy the whole of the drive that is in use. In case of need, I just take it out and plug in the clone and the PC will boot up and everything will work as it did before. Many thanks for your patience.

Aardvarkly said:

"A cloned drive is simple, if the old drive dies just remove it and replace it with the clone."
With that said, I will go with a clone. That is the result I am looking for. I just want to be able to copy the whole of the drive that is in use. In case of need, I just take it out and plug in the clone and the PC will boot up and everything will work as it did before. Many thanks for your patience.

Remember, the clone is only as up to date as the time you made it, so make a new clone regularly. If you're going for the clone solution, then I'd advise using two drives to clone to, and alternate which one you make the next clone to. That way you'd always have a fallback position should anything go wrong with the latest clone.