PRB: Only Project Folders Restored from Archive (201394)

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Visual SourceSafe for Windows 5.0
Microsoft Visual SourceSafe for Windows 6.0

This article was previously published under Q201394

SYMPTOMS

An attempt to restore an archive to a location other than where it was archived from causes the SSRESTOR utility to report

<project/file path> does not exist and the archive file contains only version ranges

and only the project structure of the archived files exists in Visual SourceSafe Explorer.

CAUSE

You tried to restore an archive that contains earlier versions of projects/files but not the latest versions.

Visual SourceSafe uses Reverse Delta technology to store only the latest version of a file, along with the information to recreate older versions of the file when needed. When you archive using the -v switch option, you only archive the changes.

RESOLUTION

Archive and restore the remaining versions of the file or project prior to restoring the archive that contains the earlier versions. Use the rollback function if you only want the earlier versions saved to the new location.

STATUS

This behavior is by design.

MORE INFORMATION

Archiving with the -v switch is best used to remove old versions of files in order to recover disk space or to make the Show History command work more quickly (because it will have fewer versions to display). To move whole projects to different databases while preserving history, archive and restore the entire project.

Steps to Reproduce Behavior

Archive a file or files using the -v switch.
Try restoring the archived files to a different Visual SourceSafe database.

REFERENCES

For more information about archiving and restoring projects/files, search using the keywords "archiving" and "restoring" in Visual SourceSafe Administration Help.

For additional information, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

176875 INFO: The Primary Functions of Ssarc.exe and Ssrestor.exe

176909 HOWTO: Move a VSS Database or Project to New Location

Modification Type:	Major	Last Reviewed:	5/1/2001
Keywords:	kbprb KB201394