Backup Data to External HDD in Windows

Hi,

I have an internal hdd for data (separate from the OS drive).
I back this data to an external hdd manually.

Currently both the internal hdd and external hdd uses NTFS.
Also the external hdd is encrypted using veracrypt.

The current size of data is about 450 GB.
The data consists of mostly small files with fewer (in count) large files for setups etc.
I usually just write more data to the hdd with some files moved around for better organization.
The deletes / modifications to files are rare.

I would like to automate the backup of data to external hdd.
I came across https://freefilesync.org/ and would like to hear your opinion about the same.

I have also seen https://restic.net/ and rsync, but I am not sure if these would work for a local only backup.
Restic seems to create some sort of repository for backup and perhaps needs a server running?
I think this might be a problem because then I would need to ensure the metadata created by backup tool would need to be backed up?
I couldn’t figure out how to use rsync. Perhaps someone could provide an example?

Should I use some other file system on both the internal and external hdd (something like btrfs)?
I just need the data to be accessible from Windows. Not sure what file system other than NTFS to use.
I am not planning to add any more drives as of now.

Is it safe to upload a veracrypt container on google cloud as backup?
I am not planning on investing in a NAS as I might move.

Thanks

Veeam changed their licensing a while ago so I am not sure if all the features work. Incremental back ups is what you want.

I have found ShadowProtect to be better than Veeam for Incremental back ups but it’s not free.