Computer Associates ARB6002700WF0. ..... Administration Guide - Page 151

The Device Manager Maintenance Tasks Using the Device Manager, you can perform the following maintenance tasks on your media: ■ Format media ■ Erase data ■ Retension a tape ■ Compress data ■ Eject media ■ Rebuild media (RAID only) Important! Before you use these options, especially formatting and erasing, make sure you have the right media selected. Each of the maintenance functions is described in more detail below. For more information on the Device Manager, see the online help. For more information on Device Management functions specific for libraries, see the BrightStor ARCserve Backup Tape and Optical Library Option Guide. Each device option is discussed in more detail in the following sections. Formatting Media You must format your media before using it. Although BrightStor ARCserve Backup automatically formats blank media, you can use the Format Media option to manually format your media. Formatting writes a new label at the beginning of the media, effectively destroying all existing data on the media. If you are using a library drive, you can format a single media or multiple media. Note: If you format multiplexing media, BrightStor ARCserve Backup formats it as regular media rather than multiplexing media. For more information on multiplexing, see Multiplexing in the chapter "Backing Up Your Data." You can also use the Format option to assign media to media pools. For more information on this topic, see Media Pools, in this chapter. Important! Use this feature with care! After you format media, the data it contained (if any) and any job sessions associated with this media are permanently deleted. The life span of a media generally depends on passes. A pass is defined as the storage device head passing over a given point on the media. For example, a backup without verification constitutes one pass, whereas a backup with verification constitutes two passes. Managing Devices and Media 7-3