What is archiving?

'Data archiving is the process of moving data that is no longer actively used, to a separate data storage device for long-term retention'.

Archiving is needed to preserve information that is deteriorating, for example.

So where do people go to see these preserved in active data? Museums  spring to mind...

The V&A website made a valid point on why archiving is important:

'From the classic couture of the House of Worth to the street style of Antoni + Alison, the collections of the Archive of Art and Design show how fashion design has changed since the 19th century.'

Just because the data stored is inactive, doesn't mean it isn't useful. The archives offer great amounts of information that is important for future referencing.

Due to the fact achieves are used for referencing, means it is crucial for them to be properly indexed in order for relevant information to be extracted quickly.

Archives can come in the form or databases, physical copies in categorised folders, on a disk or external hardrive.

Archiving isn't just text only: Documentation, reports, paintings  photography, fabric samples would be an example of information stored in an archive.

Photograph by John French, 1960s. Museum no. JF6745/3 

Courtesy of Ivan Sutherland. Copyright: CC-Att-SA-3 (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0) Museum no. AAD/2009/19/17/5

Difference between ARCHIVE and BACKUPS

Archives are used for reference, whereas backups are copies of the data, which can be used to replace any lost data. Information in archives are used to help future referencing, rather than used to replace the existing information. 

For example, to back up a computer, the most up to date data would be needed, to avoid losing the most recent data. An old back up wouldn't be as useful, because it is too old but would indicate how much data has changed between the old copy of data and the most recent.

'Backups are primarily used for operational recoveries, to quickly recover an overwritten file or corrupted database. The focus is on speed, both to back up and recover, and on data integrity. Archives, on the other hand, typically store a version of a file that's no longer changing, or shouldn't be changing'.