How many partitions on new backup drive?

First you have to understand the terminology as used by Acronis. A TI clone means that you are making an identical copy of an entire physical drive. It will replaces all the partitions on the target drive with the structure of the source drive. It is intended for replacing an old drive with a new, usually larger drive, not as a backup mechanism.

You want to make images of your OS partition. They are just large file(s) and can be put into the root or folder of any partition on your backup drive. They do not need their own partition! This is the advantage of images over clones for backups, you can store as many images of your system that space permits whereas if you are cloning, you can only have one clone.

You are quite correct to want to keep previous images. It provides a fall-back position if your most recent image is bad for any reason and it also permits you to roll-back your system to an earlier date should it have a problem with software or a virus. Just let them accummulate until you need the space.

You can use TI to make backups of your data files or you can even make an image of the partition the data files are contained in. However, many of us actually prefer to just use a Windows copy to copy the files in their native format to the backup drive/folder. They are likely already compressed if they are .jpg files.

Other options for data files are to use programs like Karen's Replicator, SyncBack, etc (freeware) which allow you to automate the process and allow incremental backups and some other options. I personally don't like putting my data files into a large container file which TI will do. If you have some problem it can render the entire container unreadable not just a file or two. Also, you don't need a special program to read the archive files. The choice is yours.

IMO, taking good care of your pictures and other personally created data files is the most important thing you can do. It may be a PITA but you can always reinstall Windows and the apps if you lose them but your pictures and other personal files are available nowhere else.

To directly answer your original question, my backup drive as only 1 partition but several folders.

Seekforever, thank you very much for a very clear and understandable reply. I was unable to glean your insight from the User Manual, though I read the whole trhing.
Art

You might gain a lot by reading the Sticky above by GroverH. Much easier to understand than the official manuals.

Agree, this is very useful, to understand the difference between cloning and imaging.

I'm planning to back up to a new external hard drive and wanted to partition the drive to use most of the space for a sequence of drive images, but leave a certain amount in a second partition for data backups independent of the drive images.

Is there any point in my doing that, or is it advisable to just stick with imaging?

Also, if I read the manual correctly, TI won't partition the external drive for me; thaatwould have to be done using Win 7's partitioning ware, or a third-party software?

You can just use a folder for the images and a folder for the data backups. There is no need for separate partitions but if you want them, you can do it.

Windows Disk Management is a fine tool for partitioning and formatting. TI won't do it.

You should also format the external drive as NTFS not FAT32 unless you are using it on systems that don't support NTFS as well. FAT32 can only handle a maximum filesize of 4GB and will cause any images greater than this to be automatically split. This doesn't upset TI but it may not be what you want. Also, if you are copying with Windows a large data file such as a video file over 4GB to a FAT32 drive you will get a disk full message even if it isn't. Besides, NTFS is a superior filesystem to FAT32 and that in itself is a good reason.