Per ESRI:"It would not be possible to retrieve the same archival information after exporting the feature class into a new geodatabase."So, in other words, one cannot copy archival information from one geodatabase to another. It must always live in the same geodatabase. Once you have transferred a layer to a new geodatabase you can set up versioning and then archiving, but you're essentially creating a _new_ archive that starts from the data that you created it.If you need to retain archival information when moving to a new ArcGIS version and a new server, the recommended course of action is to: 1. Upgrade the geodatabase to the new version 2. Backup the database 3. Restore the database on the new serverThat should ensure that everything is retained during the move.