True Image 2013 Not Responding-Uninstall/Reinstall Questions

Problem: As of March 22, 2014, when I click on the True Image 2013 icon the first page came up (the one with "The product has been successfully activated" in the lower left and the tabs for Get Started, Backup and Revovery, Synchronization, and Tools and Utilities). It immediately goes into the "Not Responding" mode in Windows Task Manager (WTM). I'm using Windows 7, 64-bit. I have to use End Task in WTM to end it. True Image was working fine on March 20.

Cause: I contacted Defender Pro (my anti-virus software) support March 21 because, for a week, I had been getting a message that there was an important update to my DP. I tried to install the update but it did not work so I wanted to know what was going on. Basically, they took control of my PC remotely for a "45 minute to an hour" repair to cure this problem. 14 hours later it was still not fixed and they had given up. Their final suggestion was to completely reinstall the operating system, which would mean I'd then have to reinstall all my programs, and that "might" fix the problem. At that point I stopped them and reinstalled my DP 2012 version that they had deleted trying to get a 2014 version to work.

Somewhere along the line they did something that broke True Image. I've tested all my applications/programs and True Image is the only one not working.

I can see that Acronis processes/services are being loaded by the Startup file when the PC is started. Before attempting to start Acronis I can see 3 clearly Acronis identifiable processes and 3 services running in the WTM. When I start Acronis, the TrueImage.exe loads to the Processes tab. That is as far as things go.

I'm thinking I need to uninstall True Image and reinstall it. I have the original TI 2013 file from June 2013
used to install True Image as well as the serial number that activated it as a full version. My only
hesitation/concern is whether this is the correct course to take. I have numerous Acronis backups on 3 different drives outside my C: drive. My questions to anyone who has uninstalled/reinstalled:

1. Is there any reasonable liklihood the reinstalled Acronis version could not read the backed up files on these 3 backup drives?

2. Is there a better way to deal with this than the uninstall/reinstall?

Thanks.