Jane:
I concur with Carl about the importance of retaining your installation files. My strategy is somewhat different than his, since I find burning DVDs to be so slow. I have a second internal hard drive, on which, among other things I store all of my installation files and patches. Further, once I have installed a program, I move the installation files to the root program directory, in this case: C:\Program Files\Cyberlink.
I have a weekly system partitions backup strategy to back up my primary drive C:\ to both the internal secondary data drive and I copy that backup also to an external 3 TB WD Caviar drive. I always keep the most recent three consecutive backups in case the latest backup is "contaminated" because of undetected malware. This means my installation files are in eight places, so unless my house burns down one can always execute or restore/execute the installation files. Doesn't even cost me $0.40 US for a DVD.
If you have ever had to re-install your OS and all of your software because of a hard drive failure/infection, you will be, I am sure, convinced of the wisdom of regular partition backups. With all of the software on my computer, it would take me weeks to install and configure everything. I did have one of the RAID0 drives (Drive C:\) start to flake out just after I got my current computer. I got a replacement drive from the manufacturer, swapped out the defective drive for a new one, booted off of my recovery DVD, and in 90 minutes was back in business, all software installed. By the way, I don't use Windows Backup, but that free product is better than not having a backup at all.
Of course if you have projects on the go, all of your media and project files are also backed up, so the most that can be lost is what you did since your last partitions backup.
Sorry to hear about your issues with PD12. I have not had any problems yet of which I am aware with it. I hope that your problems are resolved soon to your satisfaction. Sorry to wander a bit off topic, Moderator ...
Submitted for what it's worth. Have a great day.
Regards,
-Phil
Windows 10 Pro x64
Dell XPS 8930
Intel CoreT i7 (4.6 GHz)
32 GB DDR4-2666 RAM
1 TB PCIe -x4 SSD
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060
PD14 Ultimate x64, 4207
CD4 Ultra and AD6 Ultra
Bleeping Computer Malware Response Instructor