help! restoring image to new drive??

I have a laptop that has no cd-rom. I have an external HD that I used to make a copy of the image. Is there a way to install acronis onto a partition the ext HD and make the computer boot up then restore the image?

I really don't want to buy an ext cd-rom just for this purpose!

I know I could do a drive to drive copy and then boot off the ext HD then restore to the new internal HD but I have some other data on their that I'd rather not wipe completely.

 

I don't believe this is possible.

Having the "Recovery Boot-CD" is very important to have. This allows you to Restore an Image to your HD...IF it becomes unbootable. Instead of booting from a CD, you could use a 512mb USB Memory stick. The memory stick is formatted to FAT. Just open Acronis, and select create a "Recovery Boot-CD". Then select your Memory stick to save it to.
For this to work, you may have to edit your BIOS, put "USB Devices" as the first selection in the "Boot order".

 

This is a very good suggestion to use a usb key! However, why does it have to be 512mb? I see it only requires 29mb for a floppy. Thanks!