Replacing a Drive with Carbonite

To avoid data loss, Carbonite recommends restoring the backed up drive data before selecting the drive for backup.

To restore files from your drive, follow the instructions below.

1. Click the Show hidden icons arrow near your Windows clock.
   
2. Right-click the Carbonite icon and select Enter Recover Mode.
   
   When Carbonite is not in Recover Mode, the backed up files for the drive will be removed from Carbonite after 30 days.
3. Open File Explorer by pressing the Windows logo and ‘E’ key on the keyboard at the same time.
   
4. Within This PC in File Explorer, double-click Carbonite Backup Drive.
   
5. Double-click Backed up Files.
   
6. Navigate to the backed up drive, and right-click on it and select Restore To...
   
7. Within the Browse For Folder window, select a restore location click OK to start the restore of the backed up files.
   
   In this example, we restored the backed up data from the old D drive to the new D drive that we plugged into our computer, but you can restore the data to any location available in this window.
8. While the restore is getting started in the background, we recommend that you adjust your power settings and Windows update settings to ensure the restore will not be interrupted. However, you can continue to use your computer as normal and view the restore status at any time.
   If the restore is interrupted and does not continue restoring, you will need to restart the restore over with the steps above.
9. After the restore completes, review the Restore Report that appears on your Desktop to ensure your files restored properly.
10. Click the Show hidden icons arrow near your Windows clock.
    
11. Right-click the Carbonite icon and select Exit Recover Mode.
    
12. Check the box that states, “I understand that any files I did not get back will be deleted from my backup in 30 days” and click Resume my backup.
    

Carbonite will resume backing up files on your computer. However, the new drive will need to be selected for backup, which is covered in the next section.

If you already restored files from the previous drive or do not need the backup of the files, you can select the new drive for backup.

To select the new drive for backup, follow the instructions below.

1. Open File Explorer by pressing the Windows logo and ‘E’ key on the keyboard at the same time.
   
2. Within File Explorer, click This PC.
   
3. Right-click the external hard drive and click Carbonite; Back this up.
   

After the new drive is selected, it will take some time to complete the initial backup.

While the initial backup of the new drive starts in the background, we recommend that you adjust your power settings to speed up the backup process. However, you can continue to use your computer as normal and view the backup status at any time.