# Reindexing Archives

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Nx Witness creates a database that stores an index which maps the relationship between archive filenames and the physical location of the archive on disk. W hen a storage device is moved, renamed, or deleted, or when an archive file is removed, renamed, has an incorrect timestamp, or is otherwise corrupted, this index will be broken. Reindexing restores the relationship between the database and storage device(s).

Similarly, if a camera is deleted, its archive remains but access to its footage is lost. To make such footage available again the archive must be reindexed. After the archive index is restored, the deleted camera will be displayed in the Resource Tree. It will be marked as offline but it is possible to navigate through its archive.

When an archive is damaged, u sers with owner or administrator access will receive a notification when attempting to view that archive. This notification indicates the storage path where the problem was detected, and will continue until the issue is corrected.

To reindex an archive

1.Right-click on a server in the Resource Tree, choose Server Settings and go to the Storage Management tab.

2.Click on Reindex Archive to restore the index for all Main storage locations. Click Reindex Backup restore the index for all Backup storage locations.

3.A message will open with the warning "Hard disk load will increase significantly". Depending on the size of the archive, reindexing can take up to several hours. The System can continue recording while the archive is being restored but performance may be affected.

4.Click OK to continue. When the window closes, reindexing will to run in background. A progress bar will indicate status, and a message will indicate when reindexing is either complete, or has been canceled.

Note: Reindexing can be canceled at any point. However, an incompletely indexed archive may be partially or entirely inaccessible. It is strongly recommended that the archive reindex process be completed. In this case the "Reindexing Archive Canceled" event is fired.

After the reindexing is complete, the "Reindexing Archive Complete" event occurs.

(To protect against the possibility of complete loss or removal, archives can be saved to one or more backup storage locations. See "Configuring Backup and Redundant Storage".)