Cannot add an additional disk to a scheduled backup in Windows Server Backup

by | Nov 24, 2015 | Microsoft

sbs2011 backupI have come across this a few times now so thought I’d write an article.

When you try to add an additional disk to a scheduled backup by using the Windows Server Backup Schedule Wizard, you may receive the following error saying “The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect”

The reason for this is that the previously added disk for the backup is not attached to the server. If you do not have this disk to hand you need to do the following to add the new one;

Add a new disk to the backup schedule by running the wbadmin command from an elevated command prompt.

  1. Run the following command from an elevated command prompt to determine the Disk Identifier of the new disk:
    wbadmin get disks
  2. Based on the output, locate the disk that will be added to the scheduled backup. Make a note of the Disk Identifier. The output will resemble the following:
    Disk name: xxxxxxxxxxx
    Disk number: x
    Disk identifier: {xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx}
    Total space: xxx.xx GB
    Used space : xxx.xx GB
  3. Run the following command to add the new disk to the Scheduled backup. Use the Disk Identifier from the previous step as the “AddTarget” parameter.
    WBADMIN ENABLE BACKUP -addtarget:{xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx}
  4. When you receive the following prompt, type Y for Yes.
    “Do you want to enable scheduled backups with the above settings?”