diff --git a/go/store/nbs/archive_build.go b/go/store/nbs/archive_build.go
index 361b0e2977..edca1db9fb 100644
--- a/go/store/nbs/archive_build.go
+++ b/go/store/nbs/archive_build.go
@@ -130,7 +130,7 @@ func BuildArchive(ctx context.Context, cs chunks.ChunkStore, dagGroups *ChunkRel
 			return err
 		}
 	} else {
-		return errors.New("Modern DB Expected")
+		return errors.New("runtime error: GenerationalNBS Expected")
 	}
 	return nil
 }
@@ -475,7 +475,8 @@ func compressChunksInParallel(
 					}
 					cmpBuff = gozstd.CompressDict(cmpBuff[:0], c.Data(), defaultDict)
 
-					// Make a private copy of the compressed data
+					// Make a private copy of the compressed data for the result channel.
+					// Unfortunate alloc. Could use a pool of buffers if this proves to be a bottleneck.
 					privateCopy := make([]byte, len(cmpBuff))
 					copy(privateCopy, cmpBuff)
 					resultCh <- compressedChunk{h: h, data: privateCopy}
diff --git a/integration-tests/bats/archive.bats b/integration-tests/bats/archive.bats
index d39cfcf598..f9a885032c 100755
--- a/integration-tests/bats/archive.bats
+++ b/integration-tests/bats/archive.bats
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ UPDATE tbl SET guid = UUID() WHERE i >= @random_id LIMIT 1;"
 
 # A series of 10 update-and-commit-then-insert-and-commit pairs, followed by a dolt_gc call
 #
-# This is useful because we need at least 25 retained chunks to create a commit.
+# This is useful because we need at least 25 retained chunks to create an archive.
 mutations_and_gc_statement() {
   query=`update_statement`
   for ((j=1; j<=9; j++))
@@ -72,14 +72,27 @@ mutations_and_gc_statement() {
   [[ "$output" =~ "Not enough samples to build default dictionary" ]] || false
 }
 
-@test "archive: require gc first" {
-  run dolt archive
-  [ "$status" -eq 1 ]
-  [[ "$output" =~ "Run 'dolt gc' first" ]] || false
+@test "archive: single archive oldgen" {
+  dolt sql -q "$(mutations_and_gc_statement)"
+  dolt archive
+
+  files=$(find . -name "*darc" | wc -l | sed 's/[ \t]//g')
+  [ "$files" -eq "1" ]
+
+  # Ensure updates continue to work.
+  dolt sql -q "$(update_statement)"
 }
 
-@test "archive: single archive" {
+@test "archive: single archive newgen" {
   dolt sql -q "$(mutations_and_gc_statement)"
+
+  mkdir remote
+  dolt remote add origin file://remote
+  dolt push origin main
+
+  dolt clone file://remote cloned
+  cd cloned
+
   dolt archive
 
   files=$(find . -name "*darc" | wc -l | sed 's/[ \t]//g')