Hi,  I'm quite sure that cloning the USB stick is the only way to backup the Free ESXi configuration.  I have simply unplugged the stick while ESXi is running, cloned the stick with clonezilla and plugged the stick in the same USB port of the server again.  You may read this topic to choose the version of Clonezilla ready for VMFS5 cloning: http://sourceforge.net/projects/clonezilla/forums/forum/663168/topic/4749244/index/page/2  -- I've tried to backup a VM using the free version of the Veeam software. it simply didn't worked, because the free licence of ESXi.  Yes, I know that it don't works,  but the Veeam software have recognized my ESXi 5.1 like a free (limited) version, and it was in trial mode...  So, i don't think that the "restore to trial" may work (but I will surely try that way too)  regards, Frank