Definition: An archive is a collection of files packaged together as a sort of final backup into one compressed file. Do not confuse archiving with regular backups.
Archived files are usually separated from the original data file to save disk space. Archived files allow software to run more efficiently since less data needs to be searched and processed after the archived files are split from the original data file. In financial software, the data archived is usually old data which is rarely or no longer used, such as checkbook register entries from three years ago.
Pronunciation: are - kive
Common Misspellings: archiv, arkive
Examples: Quicken ran much faster after I archived my data from 2002.