relabeling tape media

[cp2525]

Currently our tape media is labeled by the day and number in our rotation.  When month end or year end occurs we simply remove that day's tape from the rotation and add a new one the next time it would have come up in the rotation.  I have several tapes which are now labeled something similar to Friday1 or Wednesday2, etc...  They already have a month end backup on them, and I would like to relabel them 2008 April Month End, 2008 May Month End, etc...  Can I relabel a tape after it has been written to without destroying the data on it and preventing the ability to restore from it?  Does the tape need to be relabeled just prior to the month end or year end backup?  Finally is there a proper way to relabel tapes?  I would just go to the Media tab right click the tape and select rename. 

[Ken_Putnam]

if you re-label, the data on the tapes would no longer be accessible (basically a quick erase)

If you re-name the tapes, the new label is stored in the catalog, but not on the tape until the next overwrite operation on that tape, at which time the label is overwritten and the data  becomes non-retrieveable

So you could rename then and then move them to an Archive media set that has a permanent protection period

For future use, yes, you should re-label the tape prior to the Month End job.