A method, system, and computer-readable storage medium are disclosed for recovering a backup catalog from replicated data. A set of catalog metadata may be stored in a metadata object on a first storage device. The set of catalog metadata may describe a plurality of files stored in an archive. The metadata object and the archive may be copied to a second storage device, thereby generating a replicated metadata object and a replicated archive on the second storage device. The set of catalog metadata may be imported from the replicated metadata object into a destination backup catalog. The destination backup catalog describes the plurality of files stored in the replicated archive.