Periodically, you may want to back up your VSS database or parts of it. You can now archive databases from the VSS Administrator program. In previous versions of VSS, Archive and Restore were only available from the command line.
Archiving allows you to:
Save disk space on your VSS database server.
Make the Show History command work more quickly.
Transport files and projects between VSS databases, keeping history information intact.
Back up all or part of the VSS database to a compressed file
To archive a database:
Open the database from which you want to archive information. See How to Open a Database for more information.
On the Archive menu, click Archive Projects… to display the Archive Wizard.
Select the project you want to archive.
Click OK.
If there are additional projects you'd like to add to the archive, do so in step 1 of the wizard.
Click Next.
In step 2 of the wizard, specify how you want the project to be archived.
If Save data to file or Save data to file, then delete from database to save space is selected, enter the name of the file to save the project(s) to in the Archive File box.
Or —
Click Browse to search for and select an archived file. This will overwrite existing files.
Or —
If Delete Data Permanently is selected, the Archive File box will be disabled.
Click Next.
In step 3 of the wizard, specify the version of the data you'd like archived (version range). You can also add a comment to the Comment box if you'd like.
Note To archive by version number, enter just the number in the Version box, i.e., 5. To archive by label, enter L followed by the label string, i.e., "LmyLabel". To archive by date, enter D followed by a date string, i.e., D11/26/98.