Thanks spanjim... I've decided not to pay the ransom.
I have one HDD that wasn't connected for the last couple of weeks. It's a total backup of everything, except executables/apps. I even backed up the desktop and files. I removed it to install a larger HDD, and forgot about it until yesterday morning. I copied it to the computer I'm currently working at. I'm not on a network and all my computers are 'stand alone'. I plan to take one of the infected drives, a 10TB and reformat it and make another backup of the uninfected drive, and set it aside. I've already started to 'recreate' some of the lost data and I will include the updated material on this newly created drive. I've lost a bunch of design data files, that cannot be recovered.
I had several hundred files (they were quite important and I'm glad I didn't lose them; they were months of work) on the desktop of the encryped computer in a dozen directories that were not encrypted. I've copied these to a USB stick and have checked the USB using Windows 'hidden and system files' approach, using the infected computer, and there are no hidden files or other software on the USB drives. There doesn't appear to be anything hidden. Is there a way to do an anti-virus scan of the USB stick by themselves to insure there is no malware? I have Bitdefender; is there a better one? I don't want to infect my clean machine. The clean HDD backup is not attached to anything, right now.
One of the other remaining encrypted drives will be reformatted and used as a backup. The third one will be set aside, with the encrypted files, in case there is a solution to the type of ransomware.
I intend to reformat the encrypted machine and re-install my software and the 'clean' files.
I'll also start a 'cloud' backup, too.