Although ARCserveIT will automatically format blank media, you can use this 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.
| Use this option with care. Once you format media, the data it contained (if any), and any job sessions associated with this media, are gone permanently. |
Low level formatting, as is required on most hard drives and some mini cartridge device drives, is not required for drives that ARCserveIT supports.
You should choose an expiration date based on how you will use the media. If you will be using the media a few times a week, you should set the expiration date to a year from now, maybe less. If you will be using the media only once a month, you can set the expiration date to two or three years from the current date.
A media's life is generally based on "passes". A pass is defined as the drive head "passing" over a given point on the media. For example, a backup without verification constitutes one pass and a backup with verification constitutes two passes.
Media manufacturers rate their media's useful lives from about 500 to 1500 passes. This doesn't mean that the media is unusable after it reaches the maximum number, just that it is more susceptible to errors at this point.
When media reaches its Expiration Date, you will still be able to use it, but when you make a backup, for example, the activity log will have a note that this media is expired.
The expiration date is just a way of tracking how long a media has been in service so you can stop using it before it reaches the end of its useful life.
If you plan to use GFS Rotation, don't format the media. Use blank media and let ARCserveIT auto-format them for you.
Follow the steps below to format media:
5. If you prefer, you can assign the media to an existing media pool, or force a particular serial number to be associated with the selected media.
