Why is transferring photos from phone to pc so hard?

I have close to 160gb of photos from the last 7 years that i want to transfer to my pc and store away on a portable hardisk ( i dont want to pay for icloud) But i have never had a more frustrating experience while using a phone. These are the things ive tried..

1. I tried windows importer and spent 8hours having my phone plugged in. After the entire thing was completed it looks like only 40gb was actually transferred and the rest are showing as cannot be opened/corrupted.

2. I tried copying directly from the DCIM folders but the copy gets interrupted in between and doesnt seem to copy the entire thing… barely 2gb gets copied.

3. I tried uploading select files to google drive(where i have 200gb) but the upload seems to stop after a few photos. Probably because i have backup turned off. This is because i only wanted GDrive to backup selected photos. If i turn it on it automatically starts backing up everything.

4. I tried those third party apps that share files locally on the same network… but im having a difficult time doing this for 160gb of photos.

Is there no other way to easily just transfer my photos onto my windows pc? Do i have to bit the dust and pay for icloud, upload everything and then download it again on my pc?