Backup location selection

In the Path field, enter the full path to the destination, or select the desired destination in the location tree as described in "Selecting backup destinations".

To assist you with choosing the right destination, the table displays the names of the archives contained in each location you select. While you are reviewing the location content, archives can be added, deleted or modified by another user or by the program itself according to scheduled operations. Use the Refresh button to refresh the list of archives.

Once you select the archive destination, the program generates a name for the new archive and displays it in the Name field. The name commonly looks like Archive(N), where N is a sequence number. The generated name is unique within the selected location. If you are satisfied with the automatically generated name, click OK. Otherwise enter another unique name.

If the automatically generated name looks like [Machine Name]_Archive(N), this means that the name contain variables. Such might be the case when you have selected virtual machines to back up. The [Machine Name] stands for the virtual machine name. You can add suffixes to the name but never delete the variables, since each virtual machine has to back up to a separate archive with the unique name.

You can configure the backup plan to back up to an existing archive. To do so, select the archive in the archives table or type the archive name in the Name field. If the archive is protected with a password, the program will ask for it in the pop-up window.

By selecting the existing archive, you are meddling in the area of another backup plan that uses the archive. This is not an issue if the other plan is discontinued. However, you should generally follow the rule: "one backup plan - one archive". Doing the opposite will not prevent the program from functioning but is not practical or efficient, except for some specific cases.

Backing up different sources to the same archive makes it difficult to use archive. When it comes to recovery, every second counts, and you might be "lost" in the archive content.
Backup plans that operate with the same archive should back up the same data items (say, both plans back up volume C.)
Applying multiple retention rules to an archive makes the archive content unpredictable. Since each of the rules will be applied to the entire archive, the backups belonging to one backup plan can be easily deleted along with the backups belonging to the other. You should not expect the classic behavior of the GFS and Tower of Hanoi backup schemes.
Normally, each complex backup plan should back up to its own archive.