True image not recognizing USB drive

I want to back up my deskside HP Envy computer from its internal 1 TB drive to an external, 2.5", SATA drive using a USB-SATA cable.

When I plug this in, the computer (which is running Windows 8.1) sees the drive right away (in device manager) and with the anticipated 1 TB of unformatted space.

Acronis 2016 on this computer never sees the drive however.  I've also tried other WD 2.5" drives of different sizes.  All the same behavior.  The computer sees them.  Acronis does not.

On the other hand my laptop also with Acronis 2016 always sees these same drives.  It's still Windows 7.  Acronis on the laptop also always sees them.  All of them.

So apparently there is some bug in Acronis 2016 on Windows 8.1 in some situations.  I don't know what those situations are, but I do know it's useless for what I want to do with it.

I tried to contact Acronis support via on-line chat.  After waiting 20 minutes with no one showing up, I gave up.  Is there any sort of refund policy with Acronis?