I use Macrium Reflect to do a scheduled incremental full system back-up daily to external USB3 drives, and do a manual incremental back-up of Cakewalk project folders before I shut down daily. Once a week for data / samples drive.
 
So, as far as doing any Cakewalk updates, I can always roll the system back, but isn't it easier to just do a version rollback in Command Center if the new Cakewalk version goes astray ?

I never explicitly back up before a Cakewalk upgrade, or any other software update short of an OS upgrade. It's incredibly rare for any software to have a negative effect on your system in general, so the realistic worst case is that an upgrade breaks the software in question, which can be uninstalled and reinstalled.

Kylotan
I never explicitly back up before a Cakewalk upgrade, or any other software update short of an OS upgrade. It's incredibly rare for any software to have a negative effect on your system in general, so the realistic worst case is that an upgrade breaks the software in question, which can be uninstalled and reinstalled.

Exactly my thinking.  Backup data and overall system, but individual applications are easy enough to reinstall.

BobF

Kylotan
I never explicitly back up before a Cakewalk upgrade, or any other software update short of an OS upgrade. It's incredibly rare for any software to have a negative effect on your system in general, so the realistic worst case is that an upgrade breaks the software in question, which can be uninstalled and reinstalled.

Exactly my thinking.  Backup data and overall system, but individual applications are easy enough to reinstall.

Likewise.

Bristol_Jonesey

BobF

Kylotan
I never explicitly back up before a Cakewalk upgrade, or any other software update short of an OS upgrade. It's incredibly rare for any software to have a negative effect on your system in general, so the realistic worst case is that an upgrade breaks the software in question, which can be uninstalled and reinstalled.

Exactly my thinking.  Backup data and overall system, but individual applications are easy enough to reinstall.

Likewise.

Here as well.

Kylotan
It's incredibly rare for any software to have a negative effect on your system in general, so the realistic worst case is that an upgrade breaks the software in question, which can be uninstalled and reinstalled.

In which case never back up :):) :)
Not!
One thing I've learned is the worst case scenario is the one you didn't think about!

Cheers :)

I try to balance the time/expense of backups with the potential value/time lost if I don't.  

On my Desktop DAW system (in the .sig below):
 
I back up nightly incremental backups using Retrospect to an external 4TB drive.
I make image backups using Acronis 2015 on to another external 4TB drive.
I backup images using disk images and also partition images. I make full disk images periodically and volume images when it seems right.
For example, since upgrading to Windows 10 I have imaged my system partition every day, keeping the last few and an older one.
I just removed all my Windows 8 images as I'm pretty confident about using Windows 10 now.
 
Occasionally, I also back up my system image to a 128GB Flash Drive (usually just before 'Patch Tuesday' or before making a major system change). I guess Windows 10 doesn't have a Patch Tuesday anymore...
 
The only problem I found with Windows 10 so far is using Virtual Box 5.0.1. The audio in VBox will not play unless you start audio in the host before playing it in the guest. I've seen this in virtual Windows 7 Pro, virtual Windows 8.1 Pro, and virtual Linux Mint Mate 17.2 "Rafaela" with my Windows 10 Pro host on both Desktop and laptop systems. Virtual Box 5 is announced as not yet being able to support Windows 10, but I'm hoping 5.1 will be out soon.
 
-----------------------------------------------------
 
On my laptop: 

Gateway (Acer) Model: NV570P29u-53334G50Mnik
Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3337U CPU @ 2.7 GHz; 8GB Ram; 10-point Touchscreen
Windows Pro 10 64-bit
Sandisk Extreme Pro SSD 960GB
Sonar Platinum 64-bit
Live Suite 9.2.1 + Max4Live 7.0.5 64-bit
Motherboard Audio: Realtek ALC3225 driver 6.0.1.7246
Focusrite Scarlett Solo USB audio interface
LoopBe30 v1.6 - virtual midi ports

I back things up to three external drives on a rotational basis using Acronis 2015 disk imaging. Since upgrading to Windows 10 Pro, I have done this several times already (usually daily). But eventually that will be less frequent. On Windows 8.1 I rotate images about monthly or just before a major change.
 

My projects are backed up to CrashPlan and a USB drive.
 
My DAW C: drive is backed up with Acronis to the same USB drive. I need to add that to CrashPlan too.
 
All downloaded software (FX and libraries) is stored to my NAS (2x2TB RAID-1). Need to get those on the cloud. 
 
My "work at home" laptop is backed up with Acronis "periodically" (i.e. 30 to 60 days depending upon what I install). Gotta get that on CrashPlan too.
 
My other two desktop computers are not backed up as they have ZERO critical files on them.
 
Gotta get The Lovely Lady's new computer on CrashPlan too.

But do you backup before installing the monthly Sonar updates?