Archiving data in a relational database management system through a process in which an invisible index is created for each primary index of a data. When an input is received to initiate block copy of data to be archived; the data tables are locked and the identified blocks of data form the data table are block copied to an archive table. The invisible index is updated to correspond to the data table which had data archived. The primary index is then swapped with the invisible index and the data tables are unlocked. Data blocks from the main table which were copied into the archival table is deleted along with the old primary index.