I have a QR archive which QR says is bad. I selected the option to recover to a new archive. When recovering, does QR move data from the old to new archive or does it copy those data?

The reason I ask is: There is only 71 GB of free space remaining on the QR archive volume but the archive itself is 398 GB. Clearly there is not enough room on the archive volume to recover much if data are copied instead of moved to the new archive.

So, copy or move? Do I need to use yet another volume to create the recovered archive or will the present volume do?

Warren Michelsen wrote:I have a QR archive which QR says is bad.

First of all, please send a diagnostic report (QRecall version 1.1 or later, choose Help > Send Report...). I'm always interested in damage archives that don't get automatically repaired by the next action or that are damaged for obvious reasons, like a corrupted volume or a failing drive.

I selected the option to recover to a new archive. When recovering, does QR move data from the old to new archive or does it copy those data?

With the copy option unchecked, QRecall will repair the archive in situ. Any corrupted data will be erased and the recoverable data is reassembled into a usable archive.

With the copy option checked, the recoverable data is transferred into a new archive and the original is untouched. There must be enough space on the new archive's volume to contain a copy of all of the recoverable data from the damaged archive.

The reason I ask is: There is only 71 GB of free space remaining on the QR archive volume but the archive itself is 398 GB. Clearly there is not enough room on the archive volume to recover much if data are copied instead of moved to the new archive.

You won't be able to repair using the copy option, unless you find another volume with at least 398GB of free space.

Try to repair the archive with the copy option off. The copy option is really for special circumstances (such as when the damaged archive is on a failing drive or a read-only volume) or for when you might want to repair the archive several times with different options.

If you choose to repair but not copy, any damaged data and any unrecovered data is erased. The possible downside is if you choose not to recover orphaned or partial files. These files will also be erased during the repair, and once erased you don't have the option of running the repair again to get them back.

But orphaned and partial files are for extreme cases where you must absolutely recover every possible scrap of salvageable data. If you just want to get the archive back into shape so you can start capturing again, leave them off.