Acronis True Image 10.0 - cannot restore backup from USB drive (Win Vista on Sony Vaio)

Trying to recover data from a previous back up session, none of the data recovery options seem to work (I never had to do any restore on this computer before):

-When launching the restore process in Acronis True Image in the Windows Vista environment, I can set all parameters until the point where the program asks to reboot the pc and during the reboot process, I see the Acronis start-up screen (loading data…) and then another screen briefly pops up (analyzing partition 'C'…) that suddenly disappears, giving way instead to the regular Win Vista boot sequence with no further action taken by the Acronis software (process seems aborted).
- When launching the restore process in Acronis True Image from the Acronis bootable CD, using the second option in the list to allow access to the USB external drive, only this latter is then being identified as the local computer 'C' drive (no other computer drive appears in the list), not allowing me to choose the target drive ('C' in my Vaio environment).

I have also downloaded the latest ISO image of the bootable CD version available from the website but to no avail.

Thank you in advance for any hints.

Best regards,
Phil

Current system specs:
Sony Vaio model VGN-FW21E
Windows Vista 32bit
Acronis True Image Home 10.0