The Backup Media Pool Is Not Updated When Media Is Removed (282889)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Windows XP Professional
This article was previously published under Q282889

SUMMARY

This article discusses the Backup media pool. When you start the NTBackup tool, all tapes that have backup information are put in the Backup media pool. If you remove a piece of media that is in the backup pool, it is still displayed in the backup pool.

If you remove the media's allocation (you can use the deallocate command to de-allocate media from a media pool), the media is eventually sent to the free pool. Program media pools can be configured to automatically draw media from free media pools whenever there are insufficient media available in a particular program media pool. If this configuration is not implemented, you must manually move media from a free media pool, when needed.

MORE INFORMATION

Media belongs to a pool, regardless of where it is physically located. The tape backups stay in the backup's media pool, even if they are not removed from the backup's pool when they are removed.

For additional information, refer to the "Removable Storage Media Concepts" section in the Help file located in the %SystemRoot%\Help\RSMconcepts.chm folder.

While in a backup pool, media can be either "available" or "allocated". Allocated means that there is useful data on the media. When a backup process is performed on a tape, the media is put back into the free pool, where it is available to any other program that may want to use the tape.

As a workaround to this behavior, you can configure the media to automatically return to a free media pool, by performing the following steps:
  1. Open Removable Storage.
  2. In the console tree, double-click Media Pools.
  3. Right-click the applicable media pool, and then click Properties.
  4. On the General tab, click to select the Return media to Free media pool check box.
If you do not click to select the Return media to Free media pool check box, you must manually move the tapes or the disks in this program media pool to a free media pool, when they are no longer needed. After you perform this action, another program can use those tapes or disks.

For additional information, click the article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

268994 Remote Storage Service Has No Option to Reclaim Media After Removing a Volume from Management

234776 Remote Storage Services Recommended Practices

Modification Type:MinorLast Reviewed:1/27/2006
Keywords:kbBackUp kbenv kbHardware kbinfo kbnofix KB282889
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