A process, apparatus, and system are disclosed for automatically backing up and restoring a system configuration during the installation of new software on a software device. The apparatus may be embodied as a software installation module having a pre-removal module and a post-installation module. The pre-removal and post-removal procedures are embedded within a systems packaging files so that they may be automatically executed during the installation procedures for installing the new software. The apparatus may also include a recovery module configured to perform procedures that are similar to, but potentially more thorough than the procedures implemented by the post-installation procedure. Specifically, the apparatus may be incorporated in a server within a storage area network (SAN) and configured to operate with a plurality of physical disk drives also connected to the storage area network (SAN).