archive_db folder - Why on a disk that isn't involved?

Paragon Backup & Recover 10 Free Edition
Windows XP Pro SP-3

I have 3 internat hard disks. Each one has a single primary partition that spans the entire hard disk. One is IDE and the other two are SATA. The BIOS is configured to boot from SATA hence why Windows in the 2nd hard disk listed (the first SATA disk) gets used to load the operating system.

Note that "GB" values reported by Paragon are GiB (Gibibytes = 2^30), not Gigabytes (10^9).

Basic Disk 0 (WDC WD1200JC...) = 120GB IDE
Volume = D:, 111.7GiB (120GB) - Data files

Basic Disk 1 (WDC WD1600JS...) = 160GB SATA #1 (BIOS boots this)
Volume = C:, 149GiB (160GB) - Windows OS and applications

Basic Disk 2 (WDC WD5001AALS...) = 500GB SATA #2
Volume = E:, 465.7 GiB (500GB) - Backup location

The 2nd SATA hard disk is purposed for use as the backup location. This is where all my backups get stored. The BIOS boots from the first SATA drive to load Windows from there. The IDE disk was retained from a prior upgrade and used to store data files and anything else that I don't want to include in backups of my C: drive, like virtual machine and .iso images that can be rebuilt if needed.

After doing backups using B&R10Free, I noticed that it creates the following folder:

D:\archive_db

There is no such folder on the C: drive where Windows run and also from where the B&R10Free program gets loaded. There is no such folder on the E: drive where the backups are stored. Drive D: isn't involved in any of the backups. The programs don't run from there and the backups don't go there. So why is Paragon created an archive_db on an unrelated volume on a hard disk not involved in the backups?

Yes, I've read posts about users having to edit an .ini file (oh joy) to change the path for this folder but that doesn't excuse or explain why this folder gets created on an unrelated volume on a hard disk not involved in the backup system.

I could see if Paragon had been sloppy and created the archive_db folder in the same volume (C as where is Windows or the B&R10Free program but it doesn't create one there. I could see if this folder got created in the volume (E where the backups are stored but it doesn't create one there. Instead it creates this folder on a volume that doesn't get backed up and where the backups are NOT stored. Do they just run through a random number generator to decide where to dump this folder despite that it remains empty even after doing some backups?

Inside this folder in an arcdir file. Supposedly this is used as the database or just an index file to find the archives that were created or added to B&R10Free. But the default location selected for the archive_db doesn't make sense. My only guess is that the IDE drive is seen first by the BIOS before the BIOS sees the SATA drives. However, that means portions of the backup program will get scattered across volumes on different disks that aren't even involved in the backups. If, say, I removed that IDE drive then I would still expect the OS and backups to continue working because neither one of them was using that IDE drive that got removed. The only logical locations for the archive database are in the volume for the OS under which the backup program runs or wherever the backups are stored, not on a completely non-involved hard disk.

 

The archive_db folder is created on the first mounted partition of the first HDD.

So it should be placed to D, as it is located on HDD 0.

Archive_db contains list of existing archive files and keep links to the archive location. If you want to move the folder to C:/ drive do the following:
* cut & paste the folder to C:/ (root directory) to get the following address: C:/archive_db/
* make sure that source folder doesn't exists.
* run B&R program in full scale.
* close the program and check if new archive_db doesn't appear on D:/

 

So all I have to do is copy the folder to another drive and the backup program will leave it there and also find it there? There's no configuration file or registry entry to tell it where to find the archive_db folder?

The reason the archive_db folder got put onto the wrong hard disk was that it was the only IDE drive in the host. The BIOS finds this drive first but the boot order in the BIOS says to use SATA first to find the OS (i.e., use the MBR bootstrap code from the 1st SATA disk to then load the boot sector of the active primary partition on that disk). The IDE disk may not remain in this host which means the archive_db would disappear with it. The 1st SATA disk has one partition spanning the entire disk and is for the OS and apps. The IDE disk was for data that was not to be included in image backups; i.e., rebuildable files, like virtual machines, .iso CD/DVD images, downloads, games, etc. The 2nd SATA disk has 1 partition and purposed for backups. I don't believe Macrium Reflect Free lets me exclude folders from image backups. I believe Paragon's free offering does so I may move the files not to get backed up (which wastes space in the backup location) back to the 1st SATA disk, exclude those folders from the image backups, and remove the IDE drive which currently has the archive_db folder on it.

So apparently all I have to do is just copy the folder elsewhere. Could it be copied to the backup location (2nd SATA disk with 1 partition where backups are stored)?

 

1) Even if archive_db location is not available, B&R will generate new folder in the root directory of first HDD in the system . Then archive base will be empty but you can manually add archives to the archive base.

2) path to the archive_db is specified in layout.ini file row "Archive directory location = "search://archive_db"
It means that B&R always performs quick search in the root directories for the archive_db folder.