Acronis TRue Image Home 2010

Hello
This product is boxed and has an original installation cd.
I am going to test recovery without a spare hard drive.
I am uncertain of the steps and need direction.
I think I tap until I can set the boot order to boot from cd. I do not know when to insert the cd as I am simulating a condition where the machine had died.
I also wonder if this cd that came with the product will serve as good a purpose as the recue cd I created with the Acronis software.
Once the Acronis screen is up, I would like to see if it is going to function so should I begin the recovery without clicking 'proceed'?
I was thinking of creating a file on desktop, backing it up, then deleteing it and seeing if I could recover it. All that may be unecessary so please advise.
Thank you