Manually Setting The SOLIDWORKS PDM Archive Server Folder Locations

Generally it’s best practice to use the SOLIDWORKS PDM Archive Server Configuration utility to relocate the PDM Archive folders, however there may be times (perhaps during a server migration or after a restore due to a system failure) where you might need to be able to specify the Archive Folder locations manually.

This is actually fairly easily done, the archive folder path information is stored directly in the Windows Registry.

To set the SOLIDWORKS PDM Archive Server Folder Location:

Step 1:  Launch Services (type services.msc into the Windows Start Menu search) and ensure that the Archive Server Service is stopped.

Stop SOLIDWORKS PDM Archive Server

Step 2:  Launch the Windows Registry Editor and go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\SolidWorks\Applications\PDMWorks
Enterprise\ArchiveServer\Vaults\[vaultname]\ArchiveTable.  There will be 16 entries, one for each of the archive server folders.  Modify EACH registry key to point to the correct folder location.

Registry Editor

Step 3:  Go back to Services and “Start” the SOLIDWORKS PDM Archive Server service.

Start the SOLIDWORKS PDM Archive Server