What is the archive attribute for windows files.What is Archive in file details?
What is the archive attribute for windows files?
attribute grammars
As I understand it, it's basically a variable of sorts to work out what has and hasn't been backed up. So when a backup is taken, the archive attribute will be set to '0', now as a user modifies files, their archive attribute will be set to '1' meaning when the next backup is taken, rather than backing up every file again, the files with the archive attribute at '1' will be searched for and backed up. So in short, it's a clever way to ensure backups are both efficient and complete.Taken from http://www.2brightsparks.com/resources/articles/understanding-file-attributes.html