I think you misunderstood something. The file will be archived as a DBF, the "stub" that is a placeholder for the file will have the same name and logical size of the original DBF, but its physical size will be much smaller.

>Is there a reason it cannot be archived as a DBF?
>
>>I have an idea. I'd like to be able to backup a DBF and remove it. I'd like to keep a record of the file, but treat it as "offline". I don't want the file to keep its physical size, but I'd like to know the original size.
>>
>>I've found out about "Sparse files" on MSDN, but I don't do the Win32 API as well as some people who hang out here.
>>
>>So here's what I'd like to see:
>>
>>I'll pass the function a file name. The function will replace that file with a new file that has as small as possible a physical presence while having the original file name and size as its logical size.
>>
>>Any help will be appreciated.
>>
>>Thanks