Bar Codes

[Removable Storage Manager is no longer available as of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.]

Bar code labels on physical media, in libraries with bar code readers, are used as a shortcut to determine the identity of physical media and its sides. Reading an on-media label can be time consuming since it requires reading data on the media, which requires that the medium be placed in a drive if it's not already there. With unique bar codes, a bar code scan is a much faster way of identifying a physical medium and the sides it contains.