I use cumulative incremental backups instead of differentials. There are quite a few major benefits of incremental backups and they're very simple to use, so I don't know why anyone would avoid them: 1) Much faster backup time (e.g. seconds/minutes vs. hours/days, depending on your system) 2) Reduced load (which translates to increased performance for end users, batch jobs and other concurrent activity) on your database since you don't have to do a full scan of the DB (assuming you're using a block change tracking file (10g+)) 3) Reduced load on your network to the backup system 4) Reduced storage space required on backup disks and/or tapes 5) Much faster restore time (less archive logs to restore and apply) Regards, Brandon ________________________________ Privileged/Confidential Information may be contained in this message or attachments hereto. Please advise immediately if you or your employer do not consent to Internet email for messages of this kind. Opinions, conclusions and other information in this message that do not relate to the official business of this company shall be understood as neither given nor endorsed by it.