Restoring Your Computer with a Mirror Image

Please follow the instructions below to restore your computer with a Mirror Image.

Booting into the Mirror Image Environment

1. Insert the recovery media (Recommended).
   • See Troubleshooting if you have not created the recovery media.
2. Turn off your computer.
3. Safely unplug unnecessary connections to your computer (wireless mice, external drives, etc.).
4. Plug the Mirror Image drive directly into the computer.
   Connecting the Mirror Image drive with a dock or USB hub may prevent the restore from working.
5. Turn on your computer and press the appropriate key on your keyboard to access the boot menu.
   • Refer to Booting from a USB drive for the appropriate instructions for your machine.
6. When prompted, select the recovery media from the list of options.

If you are successful, the Carbonite Mirror Image wizard will open.

Restoring with the Mirror Image Wizard

1. Select your language and click Next.
   
2. A screen will be displayed containing potential issues that may arise while restoring your data. Click Next to continue.
   
3. Select the external hard drive where your Mirror Image was saved and click Next.
   
4. Select your computer name from the list and click Next.
   
5. Select the date of the snapshot you wish to restore and click Next.
   
6. Select the partitions you wish to restore and click Next.
   
7. In the list on the right, choose a target drive and click Assign.
   
   Mirror Image does not support the ability to restore to NVMe/PCIe drives. These drives will not display when selecting a drive as a target.
8. Review your selections and click Restore to begin the restore.
   
   • To make any changes click Change.

It will take several hours for the Mirror Image restore to complete. Please ensure that your computer stays on for this process.

Once your Mirror Image restore completes, you will need to uninstall and reinstall Carbonite to restore your newer files or resume your backup. Please see the next section for more information.

After a Mirror Image restore completes, the backup database is reverted to the date to which you restored. As a result, Carbonite will be unable to backup or restore until the software is uninstalled and reinstalled. Please follow the steps below to repair the Carbonite software.

Uninstalling Carbonite

You can easily uninstall Carbonite through Programs and Features or Add/Remove Programs:

1. Press Windows Key + R (to open the Run box).
2. Type "appwiz.cpl".
3. Click OK.
4. Select Carbonite from the list of programs and then click Uninstall.

Before the uninstall begins, the uninstall wizard will note that the computer will no longer be protected with automatic backups if you do not reinstall Carbonite after uninstalling. Click Yes on the pop up to begin the uninstall process.

Reinstalling Carbonite

You can easily reinstall Carbonite with the button below.

Reinstall Carbonite

Once the Carbonite installer downloads, click Run on your web browser or double-click the CarboniteSetup-personal-client file to install Carbonite.

Once Carbonite is installed, please follow the instructions below to Restore Your Newer Files or Resume Your Backup.

Depending on the date you selected to restore from with Mirror Image, your newer files may be at risk of being removed from Carbonite’s online backup.

For example, if you restored a Mirror Image snapshot from January 27th on January 30th, any new data after January 27th would not be included in your Carbonite backup. For this reason, Carbonite highly recommends restoring any missing data after you perform a Mirror Image restore.

Once you have restored the desired data from the Mirror Image restore and from the online backup, you can safely resume your backup by exiting Recover Mode.

Exiting Recover Mode resumes your backup.

• New or pending files that are selected will be backed up.
• Changes to existing files will be backed up.
• Deleted and missing files will be flagged for removal.

While Carbonite backs up, any files that do not exist locally on your computer or have not been selected on the computer will be removed from the backup after 30 days.

How to Exit Recover Mode

1. Right-click the Carbonite icon in the Windows task bar.
2. Select Exit Recover Mode.
   
3. Check the box that states, “I understand that any files I did not get back will be deleted from my backup in 30 days.”
4. Click Resume my backup.
   

If you have successfully exited Recover Mode, the Carbonite icon will no longer display a down arrow.

Make Mirror Image Recovery Media

Carbonite attempts to make your Mirror Image drive capable of booting and loading into the recovery environment. If your computer can boot from a USB device, you can boot directly from the Mirror Image drive to do a restore. If your computer does not support booting from the USB device, you will need to make a bootable USB Flash Drive or CD Drive.

Recovery flash drives and CDs are generic and will work even if you created it on a different computer. We recommend creating a Mirror Image Recovery flash drive or CD when you first start using the service.

Click the button below to download the Mirror Image file, which will allow you to create a recovery media on a USB drive or CD.

Download Mirror Image ISO File

Make a Mirror Image Recovery USB Drive

Once the BMR.iso file downloads, you can burn it to a USB drive. This disc allows your computer to boot from the Mirror Image drive and restore the image of your computer.

1. Insert a USB drive into your computer that will be used only for Mirror Image.
   • The USB drive needs to be in FAT32 format.
2. Download UNetbootin from their website at https://unetbootin.github.io/.
3. Within UNetbootin, check Diskimage and click … (Ellipses) to open File Explorer.
   
4. Highlight BMR.iso and click Open.
   
5. Select the USB drive you want to use as the recovery media and click OK to start.
   
6. Click Exit to close UNetbootin.

This generic disc can now be used to help your computer boot into the drive and Restore Your Computer with a Mirror Image.

Make a Mirror Image Recovery CD

1. Insert a writable CD in your CD Drive that will only be used for Mirror Image.
2. Right-click on the BMR.iso and select Burn disc image.
   
3. Check Verify disc after burning and click Burn.
   
4. After the image has successfully burned to the disc, the CD drive will automatically eject the disk.
5. Click Close to continue to use your computer normally.

This generic disc can now be used to help your computer boot into the drive and Restore Your Computer with a Mirror Image.

Changing Your Boot Priority in BIOS (Advanced)

There is usually no need to access the BIOS to make changes when your computer is functioning normally. However, if your computer is not recognizing or allowing you to boot from your USB external drive or CD drive, you may need to adjust these settings to be able to restore using Mirror Image.

Restart your computer. Immediately press F2 or the appropriate key on your keyboard to enter Setup during the startup process.

You should see an option called Boot or Boot Settings. You can use the arrow keys on your keyboard to select the correct option. Once selected, you may need to press the Enter key to proceed.

Within the Boot menu, move your CD drive or USB external drive using the + or - keys on your keyboard (depending on your BIOS' configuration) so that your selected device is first in the list. (The keyboard key used to adjust these settings are different on each computer.)

After making the appropriate changes, you may need to press the Enter key to exit the current menu. Save your changes and exit the setup.

The boot settings of your computer will now be updated.