Windows Vista: The Complete Reference (Complete Reference Series)
Windows Vista, as with Windows 2000, includes the Removable Storage Service, a service that can keep track of your tapes or other large-scale removable storage (but we refer to all storage media as tapes in this section, for brevity). Removable Storage doesn't manage backup discs, despite the name ; however, it can label your discs and keep track of which one you need to insert and when. It also works with Windows Backup Status and Configuration and other backup or storage programs that use removable media.
Removable Storage refers to a backup device (such as an external hard disk) and its backup media (such as the DVD-R discs that work with a DVD-R drive) as a library. A library can be robotic (with an automated media changer, like the 50-CD changer you can get for your music CDs) or stand-alone (manually operated). Only Windows servers usually have robotic backup devices. Removable Storage organizes them in a library into these media pools:
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Import media pool Media that has not yet been catalogued and labeled by Removable Storage. Before you can use them for backup, Removable Storage can import them into the free media pool.
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Free media pool Unused, available media. When an application (like Backup Status and Configuration) is done with a tape, it can return it to the free media pool.
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Backup media pool Media that has been reserved for use by Windows BackupStatus and Configuration. When you use Windows Backup Status and Configuration to back up onto a new tape, Removable Storage moves the tape into the backup media pool.
Before you can back up information onto tapes, Removable Storage catalogues your unused tapes and moves them to the backup media pool. You can tell Removable Storage to do this automatically when you back up onto a new tape.