Problem

When you try to add a new backup destination drive in Windows Server Backup, you may receive the following error:

“The filename, directory name or volume label syntax is incorrect”

Cause

This can happen if the existing backup drives are not connected.

Solution

Add the drive using the following commands from an elevated command prompt

1. wbadmin get disks
2. wbadmin enable backup -addtarget:{xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx}

Where {xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx} is the disk identifier from the first command