Adding a Target Volume Using Wbadmin

Option 3 of Microsoft KB 2009365 describes how to add a disk to Windows Server backup when other disks are offsite:  you have to use the wbadmin command line tool. But the article does not explain how to add a volume, not a disk, as a target.

If you follow the KB article and answer Yes to all the command-line prompts, it will delete all data on the specified disk when it reformats it for exclusive backup use. Fortunately I stopped it before then.

To add a volume as a backup target, let’s say drive F:, use this syntax:

wbadmin enable backup –addTarget:F:

If the volume does not have a drive letter, you can use mountvol to get the volume ID, then use this syntax:

wbadmin enable backup

Note that mountvol will include a closing backslash (“\”) in the volume name. Do not include that last “\” in the wbadmin command.

More info:  TechNet’s wbadmin enable backup documentation.