Yeah, I come from OpenVMS and love the Standalone Backup feature of VMS (boot a smaller version of the OS and make an image backup of the system disk without worrying about open files). Acronis is the easiest PC product that I've found that does the same thing. Boot from CD or USB, doesn't matter. Backup to NAS, server, external USB drive, tape device, or create a TIB file on another hard drive on your PC. It will also clone a disk, too, allowing you to change the partition size. And the Workstation price is right, about $30-35.
I saw your complaint about the lack of a VGA out. Does your Toshiba have any external video at all? If not, you can find a USB-->VGA dongle. The last HP notebook I had was equipped with a DVI-out, but I never could find the special cable that fit the connector that HP used.