A lot of bad information here. Freehiker does have some good info though. If you have an Apple question, you will get better answers if you post questions on the villages Apple club site.
None of the people here asked how you got your photos to iCloud in the 1st place. Nobody just drags photos to iCloud, you normally setup your Apple device to automatically move your photos/videos to iCloud and if you don’t modify this setting, all your future photos will go to iCloud and you will be in the same boat in the future as you are now.
Sure, you can change your device settings to not move your photos to iCloud, then move all your photos to your computer. (Again, wrong info posted here. You don’t drag your photos to your computer). When you modify the sync photos into iCloud to not sync, you will be prompted if you want Apple to move these photos to your computer or just delete them off iCloud. Let Apple do the move. Before you do, move your photos library to the hard drive you want to use then Apple will move your photos from iCloud to your library.
Once you do this, make sure your computer and phone/ipad are all backed up regularly because if the hard drive/ssd fails. Your photos are gone. Most people don’t backup all their devices.
There are many sites that you can store your photos on, but some of them will cost you each month, some sites might not be secure, or you might have to do a manual process of getting your photos to this destination.
If you were using a Mac, there are many reasons to get the next storage tier in cloud for .99 cents a month: private relay and hide email, and a place to backup all your iPhones and iPads automatically. Windows, you’re on your own, I never use windows, just Apple or Linux.
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