http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/The Paragon drive backup they are giving away is the same Personal Edition v. 9.0 that I have. It has Folder Exclusion, so you can opt out of backing up large dispensable folders, like DVD images etc..
It's the same edition I paid $40 for with the exception that there's no support or free update.
Paragon tends to only have one update anyway, then they come out with a new major version number(at least that's been my experience with this product.. been using it since 8.5)
I've restored with it from USB external drives 4 or 5 times so I can say it does work, at least on HP desktops I've owned.
You need fast internet. The download is 241 MB and includes both 32 bit and 64 bit versions. Also the product has an .iso CD image for the boot CD. You need to download and install before the deadline. However, once it's on the system, if your HD should crash, you boot from CD and restore the image from USB external or whatever.. so you don't have to reuse the serial number. It's already "installed" when restored just like all your other programs.