Choosing where backups go

Step 2 of the wizard, Where should the backups go?, is one choice of kind and a few fields. Set it once and the job finds its destination for years, whatever letter Windows gives the drive.

Wizard step 2 - a USB drive as destination

The three kinds#

This article covers the first kind. The others have their own articles: Backing up to a NAS or network share and Backing up to S3-compatible cloud storage.

This PC or USB#

1. Under Drive, click the drive. Each shows its letter, its label or kind (Local disk, Removable, External disk) and its free space. A drive that is unplugged shows Not connected.
2. Check the Folder. The wizard fills in <drive>\Backups\<job name>, for example H:\Backups\Documents & Desktop, or <default destination>\<job name> when Settings ▸ Backup defaults ▸ Default destination is on that drive. Change it, or use Browse…. It is created if it does not exist.
3. Read the line under the free-space bar (it appears once the What step has an estimate).
4. Click Test destination, or wait a moment: the test runs by itself. Reachable and writable (34 ms) means ready.

Unless Settings ▸ Backup defaults names a default drive, a new job starts on the safest drive it finds: a connected external drive first, then an internal drive on another disk, and the drive Windows runs on last.

The two options under the folder#

• Make this my default destination: the wizard starts on this drive for new jobs.
• Warn me if the drive isn't connected 10 minutes before a run (on): a Windows notification, A backup destination is not connected, in time to plug the drive in.

A USB drive is found by the drive, not the letter#

Windows can give the same disk E: today and F: tomorrow. When you save the job, GBM AI records the drive's volume serial, and each run looks for that drive under any letter. Restore and Find do the same, which is why the app says last seen as E:.

If another disk turns up under the job's letter, the run does not write to it. Open the job and save it on purpose to back up to that disk from now on. See Moving your backups to a bigger drive.

Warnings you may see#

The warnings do not block the job. They name the risk once, on the step where it is chosen.

What lands on the drive#

H:\Backups\Documents & Desktop\
    Documents & Desktop_20260918-020000\    one set per run
    Documents & Desktop_20260919-020000\
    db\                                     the job's catalogue of what each set holds
    gbm-ai.json                             names the job that writes here

Each set folder holds the backed-up files, compressed and packed as the job says, and its manifest: the list of every file with its checksum. Verification reads the manifest back, Find indexes it, and Restore reads the sets through it. Restore through GBM AI; do not rely on opening the set folders in File Explorer.

Related articles#

• Backing up to a NAS or network share
• Backing up to S3-compatible cloud storage
• Restoring from a drive that is not connected
• Destination not connected, or not answering