Managing Devices and Media › Device Manager › Maintenance Tasks › Format Media

Format Media

Although Arcserve Backup automatically formats blank media during a backup job, 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.

Note: Use this option with care. After the media is formatted, Arcserve Backup can no longer restore the data and any job sessions associated with the media.

Low level formatting, which is required on most hard drives and some mini cartridge device drives, is not required for drives that Arcserve Backup supports.

To format media

1. Click the Format toolbar button on the Device Manager window.

   The Format dialog opens. It displays specific details about the media in your library slots. For example, unformatted media appears as <Blank Media>, and slots reserved for cleaning media do not appear.

   Important! File System Devices (FSD) that are part of a staging group cannot be formatted using the Format toolbar button. To prevent accidental formatting of an FSD before the data is migrated to a final destination media, Arcserve Backup disables the Format toolbar button on the Device Manager window. If you want to format the FSD, you can either use the command line (ca_devmgr) or disable the staging option for the selected FSD.

2. Select the slot containing the media that you want to format. Assign a New Media Name and an Expiration date to the media that you want to format.

   Note: When you assign a New Media Name to a slot, the light icon next to the selected slot turns green. Slots with write-protected media appear in red. These media cannot be formatted. You must specify a New Media Name before formatting the media.

   Repeat this step if you want to specify more media.

3. If you want to use the media in a media pool, select a slot with the green light icon and check the Use Rotation option. Then, from the Media Pool drop-down list, select the media pool that you want to use the newly formatted media in. In the Serial No. field, you can accept the default serial number or specify a user-defined serial number. (If no media pool name is defined and the media has an assigned bar-coded serial number, then Arcserve Backup does not overwrite that serial number during the format procedure.)

   Note: Click the Apply to all button if you want to use all of the formatted media in a media pool and assign all the media to the same media pool.

4. Assign a name and an expiration date to the media you want to format. You must specify a New Media Name before formatting the media. For more information, see How to Choose Expiration Dates.
5. Click OK.

   The Format dialog closes and the following message appears:

   "Formatting will erase ALL of your data from the media. Do you want to format the media?"
   

6. Do one of the following:
   • To start the formatting process, click OK.

     Arcserve Backup formats the media.

   • To cancel the formatting process, click Cancel.

     Arcserve Backup does not format the media.