Trouble with large Uploads file during backup/FTP

I have a large uploads folder (800+Mb) which gets split into 9 files during backup creation. (Set split to 100Mb to save resources). The backup seems to work, but FTP to the remote site takes forever and goes through several restarts before failing, always on the uploads.zip files.

One question, Updraft seems to create the files in its own folder in the wp-content folder on the host server and I use FTP to save them to an updraft folder in my blog directory. Is this even necessary if Updraft keeps the files in its own directory on the same host server? If not necessary, can I always be assured of being able to restore from the plug-in or files in the wp-content directory?

Another question. If the site fails completely and I am unable to access the Updraft plug-in, how do I restore the site from the files on the host server?

Thanks much and pardon my ignorance of how the plug-in works.

https://wordpress.org/plugins/updraftplus/