Acronis True Image has always been one of the more feature-packed of backup tools, with the ability to copy your emails, selected files, individual partitions, complete drives and more.

Acronis True Image Home 2012 extends its reach even further, though, with new support for data synchronisation, and fully integrated online backup courtesy of Acronis True Image Online.

The sync feature, probably the most useful new addition, is straightforward to set up. Specify a folder which you’d like to sync, then either point the program to another local folder – this can be on a network folder, an external drive, whatever you like – or point to your Acronis True Image Online account, if you’d prefer to sync with the cloud.  Leave the program to sync automatically and there’s nothing else to worry about.

Nothing else apart from your True Image Online subscription, that is, because despite its deep integration into True Image Home 2012, it remains a separate service. There’s no free online backup space here, so if you want to continue using it after your 30-day trial is up then you’ll need to pay the regular fee (that’s $4.95 a month, or $49.95 for a full year, which gets you 250GB of online storage).

Fortunately there are other new features which don’t involve parting with any extra cash, and the most obvious is the revamped interface. This aims to make the program easier to use, and there’s definitely plenty of hand-holding for backup novices, which should help them to get their first backups configured more quickly.

We’re less sure about the benefits of the new interface for more experienced True Image users, but there are a few more advanced additions to attract their attention. Acronis Nonstop Backup can now be used on report storage devices, including NAS, for instance; there’s support for EFI, GPT disks, and hard drives larger than 2TB (even if the operating system doesn’t support these); a new E-book file category simplifies the process of backing up all your e-books; and if any of this fails to work as you expect, then the improved log should make it much more straightforward to figure out what’s happened.

As previously, Acronis True Image Home 2012 is priced at $49.95. The sync feature introduces a complication, in that if you want to synchronise with other systems over the internet then they’ll each require a licence, however if you purchase Acronis True Image Online then you’ll be covered for up to 5 PCs.