It is important to backup your hard drive just in case anything happens so that you don't lose all of your data.
Finding your Acronis serial number
1. Start up your Acronis software
2. Left-click on tools
3. Left-click on Manage licenses
4. A window should pop up asking you to enter the name of the machine, type in the box: localhost
5. This should bring you to a screen similar to the one below, left-click on the down arrow
6. Your serial key should now be partially displayed. Hover of the partially displayed key and it will show the entire key
Backing up to a new machine
Make sure the Acronis version is the same on the machine you're backing up and the new machine
Using an external hard drive
Add bootable media in default setting
Create another bootable media
Select the drive you want to back up and the new drive
Once the new drive is done use the bootable media to start it up
Select the hard drive you want to data from the external drive to
Once its done, manually reboot it if it doesn't reboot for you
If you get a black screen with a blinking cursor your master boot record (MBR) is corrupt
The MBR is helps your computer boot your version of the operating system (OS)
Insert an installation disc for your OS version and enter recovery mode
recover MBR and if the option exist, also the boot file
Reboot again and it should work, if it doesn't then insert the installation disc again and enter recovery mode
Reinstall the OS and the download should recognize that you already have the same existing OS on your desktop
It will ask you to recover/fix the installed OS and accept
Once it finishes recovering/fixing the installed OS your desktop should not boot