Follow link to download full free version of Acronis True Image 2009 (aka "Acronis True Image 12"?). Click on "Download the beta-version." You must provide a name and email to get the registration code.

I have used Acronis True Image 10 and 11 for quite awhile and have been trying out this new one out on my test laptop for a couple of days. 2009 seems to have all the features of 11 with the main difference being the new GUI. I don't know what will happen after the beta testing but I wouldn't be surprised if Acronis gave the beta testers a discount on the final version. Regardless, this beta version works just fine and you can use it to create a rescue disk for future use. The rescue disk allows you to backup, restore, add, clone, etc. without having the program installed on your computer.

If you need a good backup program, or to add or clone a hard drive, this is a good deal.
Link to Acronis True Image Home 2009 (beta)

I also posted this on the "other" site under the user name "hanno."

Edited to add other free backup alternatives:

If you don't trust a beta for you backups but still want a good free solid backup program, consider the following. These are basic versions but they are not trial versions or betas. I have tried all of these and they work.

Paragon Drive Backup Express (requires name and email for registration)
Paragon

Macrium Reflect (props to Airjrdn for suggesting this)
Macrium

If you have a Seagate or Maxtor hard drive, you can use the DiscWizard (Seagate) or MaxBlast (Maxtor) software.

Look at bottom of page under "General Software"
Seagate and Maxtor

I haven't tried this one but it looks promising.
Self Image

thanks!

glenatuf said:Good program, can't beat free. Beta makes me a bit worried, but it's probably just new gui teething they're still working out. Any new features?

New? Well, the "One-Click Protection" (backup) is handy. Otherwise very similar to 11 but that's just a quick overview. I have tried out the backup, restore, and rescue disk functions and everything works as expected so far.

Slow download

ETA 2hr 16min for 162 MB

Awesome!
3.5 minutes

... and Thanks OP!

Zenoicus said:For me that download is painfully slow, site must be getting hammered. I found a way faster mirror here: http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1165/mirrors.php

Does this expire like some other betas?

couponjohn said:Does this expire like some other betas?

It likely will but while it is installed, you can create a rescue disk that you can use in the future to backup, restore, clone, etc.

Can it compress everything when it does a backup? My external HD doesn't hold everything anymore. Does anyone know how it does in compressing?

The problem I had with the last free version I had tried was that it didn't allow backup/retrieval directly to and from network drives. Does this version allow that?

Airjrdn said:Zenoicus said:9. Acronis True Image Home does not backup shortcut files, but rather, the resource being referenced by the shortcut.

Hmmm...

Say I have:
C: OS Partition - ~10G of data (uncompressed)
D: Data Parition

D: Contains 4 Acronis images of C:, each at 8G compressed, so, total of 32G
C: Contains shortcuts to those images so I can double click them, and browse them at will

If I image C:, it's going to be "at least" 32G + whatever my 10G of data compresses down to?

What are they thinking? I realize there's a slight safety in backing up a few Word docs people might have shortcuts to on the partition they are backing up, but who would want True Image "thinking" for them like that?

This would be a bad setup if you needed to restore a backup due to hard drive failure.

Although I realize beside the point, and you're speaking hypothetically and probably know this.