Abstract: A method, system, and computer program product for updating software on a data processing system, such as a server, having a root partition and a mirrored partition is provided. In one embodiment, a preparation function is executed on the data processing system. Responsive to a determination that the preparation function completed successfully, the root mirroring function of the data processing system is broken such that changes to the root partition do not affect the mirrored partition. Next, the root partition of the data processing system is upgraded using, for example, a software patch. Responsive to a determination that the upgrade to the root partition of the data processing system was unsuccessful, recovering the original state of the root partitions using the mirrored partition which still contains the original state of the root partition.