I want to image my system drive (Win 7 64bit) and thinking of using Acronis True Image 2013.  I do not connect this to the Internet and have no firewall or anti-virus software on my system.  I try to keep it as clean and purely dedicated just to music as possible.  Should I be concerned with Acronis installing stuff that adds overhead to the system and decreases performance.

I'm also wondering if I could simply run an image backup using a program file installed to USB stick (so I don't have to install anything onto my my system disk).

Any thoughts on how to best do image file backups of my main DAW system drive would be most appreciated.

i got the 2011 and it's all good ....

I have 2012 running on my off-line machine - no issues.
For images, I have it set up to send them to my D: drive.

I suppose I'll dump them to an external drive if I needed to clean up some space.

I'm another Acronis user although it's 2011 on my DAW. I have 2012 but only on my laptop. No particular reason other than I'm only paying for one 2012 license.

I have 2011 on my system. Just make sure you don't activate the "real time" backup, because that WILL hog your resources like a boss. All mine does is an incremental backup of system & data, upon shutdown. 

I own Acronis 2011, but never even loaded it on my system. It installs too much bloatware and things you'll never use in a million years, and some things you should be ashamed of yourself for even thinking of trying to use!

It comes with two versions ... a Windows version and an emergency boot disc version that has a weird DOS like menu that you can use a mouse with. That's what I use.

I made the emergency boot disc, and created an image using it's utility and saved the image directly to an external USB drive, so I never even had to install the Windows version.

I've never trusted images of Windows that were made while Windows was running ...

If your trying to save some money and find some place to get the 2011 version, make sure you download the latest update for it. Upon release there was a bug that didn't allow 2011 to see external USB drives. You have to log in to your account and download the latest update for 2011 to be able to see external USB HDD's and Thumb drives. I'm sure it's fixed in the 2013 version though, I would think ...

Good luck! Acronis is a great program. I was reading that Windows 8 users have to upgrade to 2013 ... iirc. Another thing to consider.

I use 2012 without issues. I keep a combination of disc images and file backups on external hard drives and run them manually.

I've just installed 2013 as a FREE upgrade from 2012 (2 licences)

I haven't used 2013 yet but had no issues with any previous version

I currently use ATI 2011 build 6942 which works rather well, but with an occasional crash.

As for ATI 2012, I don't think much of it: 
ATI 2012: http://forum.acronis.com/forum/24120#comment-74697

And for ATI 2013, the verdict is out:
ATI 2013: http://forum.acronis.com/forum/35152

Mainly - I trust Retrospect - I use them both.

If you want more details email me and I will oblige.

you have 2 bootware that you can deactivate ...super easy ...jus "Msconfig" it ;)