That is one of the main reasons I use partitions. Only the C:\ drive will go out, the rest will still be usable. I used an old version of a program I got with a 500Gb harddrive for my old computer (just bought a new one for reasons I do not actually know I guess, still like XP better). It came with the Seagate harddrive and part of it is a reduced version of Acronis for backup and the bootable disk. I was able to make both without any problem after installing on the new Win7 computer (I will not get Win8) and it worked fine. I have not tested it but it seems to know what it was doing and I had no error messages or nothing.

Now here is the deal though, on it it has a sector by sector backup of a harddisk that takes up a lot more room on a harddisk partition - or a second harddrive I may buy. Actually I will never use the stupid 1Tb harddisk that came with the computer, I can't even fill up the 500Gb harddrive in the old computer and ends of useless programming stuff I stored on it anyway. But if it makes a sector by sector copy, I am still debating whether if I switch the wires in the computer (say the first harddrive fails and it only like I said fails where the OS is on the partition or the C:\ Primary Partition, that is why I add partitions which I guess some people do not like, but ya...........I won't lose my data) then hook up the second drive as if it is the first drive and wow-la bing bang, the OS put on sector by sector starts up just now with the second harddrive (which is not nearly used as much because the OS partition is the one used the most at anytime on a computer) and put the first harddrive as the second with the busted C:\ partition but the other partitions working fine, I may never need a Bootable CD or anything like it. Still pondering if it does copy the Master Boot Record on the OS and all of that yet, but I doubt as why it would not!!!! ????

fireberd: as you surmised and slartabartfast suggested, the problem you encountered was due to the Linux bootloader (iirc, Grub) used by Acronis lacking necessary hardware support for your very recent motherboard's SATA controllers.

The WinPE version you downloaded from MS is more current (it has to be, to allow installation of Windows on newer systems) and so had no problem installing the necessary SATA/AHCI support so that your drives became visible to your Acronis recovery application.

jbow: it is really incorrect to generalize cloud backup/storage as risky, because if implemented correctly by a cloud backup/storage provider your data is stored in several separate locations (replicated and spread across 
the "cloud") for safety and fault tolerance, rather than in only a single vulnerable location (like in a single data center, which is probably where CW's servers were/are located). Lots of big companies are moving their data (and their servers also) to cloud services for that reason (there are other reasons as well, like accessibility, but data safety/fault tolerance is a biggie). But, it costs, and cloud services differ. 

Amazon S3 is probably the most reasonably priced cloud solution for regular consumers, and is very robust, but it requires some technical expertise to set up and use. There are cloud storage companies which will do the heavy technical lifting for you (many simply use Amazon's or other cloud systems but have easy to use web interface front ends).

Expect many more cloud backup/storage services to appear, since the recently launched Windows Server 2012 enables cloud storage deployment and management. So prices may hopefully come down.

Meanwhile, besides Acronis, for backup/recovery there are some other low cost (and even free) applications I've used which might be of interest:

http://www.easeus.com/

http://www.boot-disk.com/

I know this is a bit old, but have you had any other issues with 2013 Acronis True Image Home? I'm planning on getting Acronis and will be using it on Win 8.

I had problems restoring with Acronis and have dumped it in favor of Macrium Reflect (paid version).   I had used Acronis, and did backups, without problems (except for the Win PE issue) for several years and always recommended Acronis. 
 
I ran into two recent problems that Acronis failed me and it won't get a third chance.  The first one, I have an SSD drive for Windows 8, on a dual boot system with Windows 7 on a separate drive.  The Win 8 SSD had a firmware upgrade available (worthwhile upgrade) but the firmware upgrade will wipe out all data.  I backed up the SSD, using Acronis (I don't remember if it was 2012 or 2013 version) to a conventional hard drive and did the firmware upgrade.  I then attempted to restore the data to the drive but Acronis would abort every time I tried.  I finally gave up and just did a reinstall of Win 8 since it had been a recent install and nothing much on it.    The second time, I had a motherboard fail on a different PC and also corrupt the hard drive.  No problem, I had an Acronis backup that was on a USB connected drive.  However, after replacing the motherboard, every time I tried to restore from discs (and I tried a 2013 Acronis recovery PE Disc, 2013 Linus Acronis Recovery Disc, 2012 Acronis discs, both Win PE and Linux, and an even older version recovery disc) it would complete the restore but I could never boot with the restored drive.   I took the hard drive to a different PC and connected it as a USB drive and after several attempts I was finally able to get the disc restored.    That was the end of Acronis. 
 
I had previously tried Macrium but didn't have any success.  I tried again and it all worked out - both making a backup and then creating/restoring a disc from the Macrium backup.  Even the Win PE recovery disc was easier.  On Acronis it required a lot of manual intervention and downloading.  With Macrium, the process was automated, including dowloading Win PE, and there was very little manual intervention. 
 
 
 

Thanks Fireberd. It's a shame that the newer versions of Acronis don't seem to be as dependable as they used to. Generally, Acronis is the common go-to when it comes to backup. I'll check out Macrium.