I believe this is because the controlfile can't find the file (someone correct me if I'm wrong). I would check the path and ensure that the controlfile is pointing to the correct location. WGB -----Original Message----- From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Bill Zakrzewski Sent: Wednesday, December 16, 2009 1:58 PM To: Oracle-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: OCP Question Listers - I took the Oracle 10g OCP exam and one question in the exam was something I have not come across in several years working with Oracle. I searched google, but only found someone has had this happen, but they didn't understand why - it was during a database cloning process. It went something like - You rebuild your controlfile and open your database and discover several datafiles have been renamed to /somepath/MISSING##### (where ##### is a 5-digit number). What might that signify? A. Those are corrupt files? B. Those are read-only tablespace files? C. ..... D. ..... E. ..... I don't remember the five choices, but does anyone know why Oracle would rename datafiles to .....MISSING#####. Thanks Bill-- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l