Michael, Condolences in having to work with a less than optimal SA. Sadly I have been in a similar situation, just 6,000 miles away from the server, a few years ago when the local SA did the same thing. HP-UX has a similar behavior to Sun except that although the file disappears the file memory remains mapped to the session/database instance until you shut it down. You pay the price on startup, especially since "no one would ever do that, now would they"?! Yes the local SA not say anything until after the next cold backup when the DB would not start. Putting that mess back together was one very long weekend. Dick Goulet Senior Oracle DBA Oracle Certified 8i DBA -----Original Message----- From: Michael Fontana [mailto:mfontana@xxxxxxxxx]=20 Sent: Monday, January 31, 2005 6:23 PM To: Oracle-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Accidentally Delete *.dbf Files, OH NO!!! I have been working with Solaris for several years now. We have had a rare but particularly debilitating problem where certain people who will remain nameless, in an effort to "clean up" disk space, have nailed a .dbf file or two. I know I should have the solution to this on close at hand, but I seem to recall this was difficult, if not impossible, on other Unix platforms (such as AIX), because the file would be "locked" or "in use", and the nefarious "rm" command would fail. Alas, Solaris is all too willing to comply when asked. =20 Is there something that can be done, at the OS or Oracle level, to prevent such a thing? Needless to say, the "whackers" are using root to enter the command, so changing permissions would accomplish little. They are already set to only allow "oracle" write access. Any help or even ridiculing chuckles and admonitions would be greatly appreciated. -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l