893 - Error: "Unable to determine if root directory exists" on newly formatted drive

Symptom 

A known issue exists where the output to the Local Backup Copy folder fails the backup with the following error message:

ERROR : 15:21:35 Backup failed: Could not create output directory at Y:\55cda218-35de-4e26-9efa-a6198312f3ce\20161018132128 (Y:\55cda218-35de-4e26-9efa-a6198312f3ce\20161018132128: Unable to determine if root directory exists)

Cause 

Due to a Windows limitation, a newly formatted NTFS drive cannot be used for Local Backup Copy output by the Agent until the drive has had other folder activity.

Solution 

Create an arbitrary folder on the drive before performing a backup.