New workstations - modern image backups

All,

We've got 4 XP workstations that are being replaced one at a time, monthly,
before next April. I just installed the first.

In the past (and now) we have been using Acronis True Image to make
periodic backup images of hard drives onto external USB drives for disaster
recovery purposes. This new workstation is different somehow.

I went into the BIOS, which is completely new looking to me. (It's been a
while since we bought a new workstation.) I changed the boot order so the
workstation would boot from DVD first. Put in the bootable DVD and Acronis
loaded up.

When I tried to do a copy of the hard drive in Acronis, it says it can't
read from (or can't find) track 0 of the hard drive. I changed the boot
order back and, thankfully, it boots from the hard drive properly.

Disk Management in Windows shows the hard drive has a 100mb partition in
front of the Windows partition. I'm assuming that is what is causing fits
for Acronis, but don't know for sure. The version of Acronis is from
/several/ years back.

Is there an easier, better way to make images of hard drives for disaster
recovery purposes these days? Is there anything built in to Win7? What's
the best, inexpensive way to do this?

If we had a server with VMWare (a possibility in a couple of months), we
could probably do a physical-to-virtual periodically and use that. But
that's months away at a minimum, if we do it.

Thanks.