Hi, StevenAus. Since I napped earlier and just found your post, I'll endeavor to give it due consideration.

I think the basic question is, "Does your current edition satisfy your needs?" and secondarily, "Do the improvements justify the expense of updating/upgrading?", as there will always be bugs to one degree or another. "Will they impact me?"... hard to say. I think if you have specific questions regarding the most used of your programs or the ones you think will be problematic, the best address for them is http://www.acronis.com/support/ .

You can read a truly excellent review here:  http://www.softpedia.com/reviews/windows/Acronis-True-Image-Home-2012-Review-232888.shtml

Their final take was:

The Good
The suite brings to the table everything a regular user requires to keep their system safe. Besides the regular backup options it also makes available continuous backup option that come with file versioning possibilities. Flexibility is visible when it comes to scheduling choices, as well.
Backups are automatically detected on the disk and you can view the comments for each one, for better identification.
True Image is still strong when it comes to methods to preserving the system in a certain state at the same time allowing its alteration. Try&Decide, Secure Zone, backup conversion to VHD and Boot Sequence Manager may not be tools for the average user, but using them is definitely a breeze.
The Bad
Synchronization is not among the best features in the package. There are better solutions on the market that work much better, and many of them are free of charge.
NonStop Backup gave us trouble on two of our test systems and did not work correctly during our tests, causing crashes and sometimes skipping backup jobs.
The Truth
Acronis True Image Home 2012 is a reliable backup solution that keeps extending its functionality by adding new features. The new options have not matured just yet and need further polishing.
But overall, the package consolidates its position as one of the best and most complex, in terms of features, backup solution on the market.

StevenAus, thanks for valuing my opinion. I hope this answers your question, or at least points you in the right direction. 

I do appreciate your trust.

Since Acronis 2010, Acronis tib's could be changed to vhd's and vice versa.

I don't know if that answers your question, but if not I'd certainly give that Acronis support email addy in reply #1 a try... I've never tried to back up a virtual drive...

There seem to be quite a few issues. Glad you found this, Steve.

Wow. That thread WebGizmos linked to as a lot of VERY useful information regarding Acronis and their current problems. Thanks, mate!

I have used Acronis products for many years. In fact, I used to do beta testing for some of their products, thus I'm somewhat familiar with them. They are generally very good and reliable. However, over the past 4 years or so, the Q&A of their new releases has been rather "questionable". In an effort to capture more of the market, Acronis has focused more on adding new features (a downfall of many software developers) rather than improving already existing features which are most used. So, the initial release of their new versions has had a bad track record; lots of 'bugs' which evokes negative feedback from the customer base. But Acronis does address most of the problems in later incremental updates. To be fair, no backup software is going to work 100% for everyone due to the vast differences in systems, configurations, user customizations, etc. If something works for you then it's a winner.

Bottom line.... Acronis True Image Home is a very good product but there are other alternatives which are nearly as good if not as good or better. Some you may want to take a look at are "ShadowProtect" and "EaseUS Todo Backup", which has a FREE version (v. 3.5) that will provide all that most people need for backuping up a complete system and/or data and it includes the ability to do Bare Metal/Universal Restore, i.e., the ability to restore a backup image to a PC with different hardware.

Just my 2 cents!