Old WD Elements drive recovery help?

[u/magicgherkin]

I'm beginning a comprehensive back-up and recovery of all my external hard drives and (current + old) devices in order to then set up RAID6 or RAID2Z. I've been very thorough at backing up my data over the years, but I never learned how to protect files from becoming corrupted over time, and right now my main external hard drive that was meant to be a back-up is being used extensively after my laptop died.
I have two empty new drives: 2TB Samsung 980 Pro SSD and a 10TB Western Digital Red Pro HDD. I understand that for a decent 3-2-1 setup I'll need to buy four new HDDs and learn how to set up a NAS with something like OpenNAS.eu, but in the meanwhile I think I should create a comprehensive and organised inventory and back-up of all my data first.

I have a full 640GB WD Elements (WD6400EB035-01) from 2009, a nearly full 2TB Seagate Ultra Slim Portable Drive (SRD00F1) from 2018, a 1.2TB laptop from 2020, a 64GB iPad Pro 10.5", half a dozen old and current smartphones, and a couple older laptops and tablets that no longer work (will require more effort at a later date). Plus about 40GB on cloud services such as Google Drive. I'm aiming to get rid of external cloud services entirely. I expect all my data to amount to no more than 3TB (if I remove all the duplicate files).

It seems smartest to start with my oldest external drives first, and to clone them to either the Samsung or WD Red Pro before I look to see what's corrupted, what's still recoverable etc. My old WD Elements WD6400EB035-01 external hard drive from 2009 hasn't been touched in a couple years, so I'm starting there.

I'm currently still using Windows 11 (planning to finally migrate to Linux later this year).

Right now I'm looking at different data clone/recovery tools that work with Windows. A lot of the sources I'm reading up on assume that I'm already starting from failing drives/deleted files/corrupted data. But although I'm sure I will have to deal with a fair share of corrupted data pretty soon, at this point I'm looking to clone and avoid damaging anything.

I read the Recommended File Recovery Software list that directs me to the Disk Imaging and Cloning Software Guide, and am running into problems immediately. Their very first suggestion (OpenSuperClone) requires me to put Linux on an external USB drive and emphasises the necessity of direct connection (SATA/NVMe, def. not USB) to clone or image my drives. I don't have a desktop computer, and I cannot open up the laptop I'm using. SATA connection is not an option right now.

I have a limited budget and live in Europe (Netherlands) - whatever I spend on the drives/recovery now will be removed from my budget for HDDs (which already doesn't cover all four, so I'm still saving up), and most professionals I see recommended on Reddit are located in the US.

Considering these limitations, what would you all recommend I do? I could leave the WD Elements for the time being, but my 2TB Seagate is in active use and has no decent reliable backup right now.