I have the installation files for every application on all my computers on a 2TB USB hard drive - all the apps, all the sound libraries, all the utilities, all the O/S discs, etc. Then that USB drive is backed up to another USB drive.

I have on occasion had to completely re-install everything (and it takes about a week because there is so much content to install, authorize, unzip, etc). But with that USB drive, I don't have to shuffle CD's or DVD's or downloads. I keep it current with any application updates, and I've got it all tracked in a spreadsheet that shows every the application organized by purpose on each tab, the current version, status of updates between my three computers, installation notes, authorization/registration codes, vendor site and forum login information, etc.

I also take a monthly image of my three computers (I just run it when I go to bed at night and it's done when I wake up in the morning), so recovering from a hard drive failure only takes as long as getting a new hard drive and then however long it takes to get the data off the USB image backup onto the computer. The O/S partition usually takes about 2 hours, but restoring my audio libraries (1.5TB worth) takes much longer just because of the time it takes to copy that much data.

But hey, that's just me.

John

Laptop-HP Omen I7 Win11Pro 32GB 2x2TB, 1x4TB SSD
Desktop-ASUS-I7 Win10Pro 32GB 2x1.5TB, 2x2TB, 1x4TB SATA

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