A vacuum processing apparatus and method in which the apparatus includes vacuum processing chambers for subjecting a sample to vacuum processing, a vacuum carriage, a switchable chamber, a cassette support for supporting a plurality of cassettes capable of housing samples, and a waiting cassette support for supporting a waiting cassette that differs from the cassettes supported on the cassette support and capable of having a number of samples. An atmospheric carriage enables carrying a sample among a given cassette of the plurality of cassettes or the waiting cassette. A controller effects control for carrying unprocessed and processed samples among the given cassette, the waiting cassette and the vacuum processing chamber, so that a mixture of both processed and unprocessed samples does not exist in the given cassette or the waiting cassette.