diff --git a/internal/archiver/archiver_unix.go b/internal/archiver/archiver_unix.go
index 4309bb36b..3b42dcd72 100644
--- a/internal/archiver/archiver_unix.go
+++ b/internal/archiver/archiver_unix.go
@@ -19,7 +19,13 @@ func preProcessTargets(_ fs.FS, _ *[]string) {
 // processTarget processes each target in the loop.
 // In case of non-windows OS it uses the passed filesys to clean the target.
 func processTarget(filesys fs.FS, target string) string {
-	return filesys.Clean(target)
+	if target != "" && filesys.VolumeName(target) == target {
+		// special case to allow users to also specify a volume name "C:" instead of a path "C:\"
+		target = target + filesys.Separator()
+	} else {
+		target = filesys.Clean(target)
+	}
+	return target
 }
 
 // preProcessPaths processes paths before looping.
diff --git a/internal/archiver/archiver_windows.go b/internal/archiver/archiver_windows.go
index 719ce5fa5..bf997ea1b 100644
--- a/internal/archiver/archiver_windows.go
+++ b/internal/archiver/archiver_windows.go
@@ -31,7 +31,11 @@ func preProcessTargets(filesys fs.FS, targets *[]string) {
 // processTarget processes each target in the loop.
 // In case of windows the clean up of target is already done
 // in preProcessTargets before the loop, hence this is no-op.
-func processTarget(_ fs.FS, target string) string {
+func processTarget(filesys fs.FS, target string) string {
+	if target != "" && filesys.VolumeName(target) == target {
+		// special case to allow users to also specify a volume name "C:" instead of a path "C:\"
+		target = target + filesys.Separator()
+	}
 	return target
 }