I use several truly free programs:
Karen's Replicator - or anything Karen created before she unfortunately passed away
Cobian Reflector
XnView
KeepassXC
Bitwarden
Veracrypt
Github or Foss are good resources when looking for free/open source software
I use Home Assistant
I grew tired of having similar problems so i opted for a program called iMazing.
It's very good and there is no bloated hard to use iTunes.
The licence is per device not per computer or user so you can install it on any number of computers.
They have excellent support services.
As cerberus says, do them individually as this gives you more flexibility.
I have C full weekly with differential daily
D for documents weekly with differential daily
With the above i can restore C and not have to worry about losing emails etc
It is a command line you run in powershell (can be done in terminal but that is not in XLite) and then you have options to tweak, install programs, run OOSU etc.
After install i use the utiliy from Chris Titus to tweak things.
It can install programs, create auto login and change the search from Bing etc.
See here:
https://github.com/ChrisTitusTech/winutil