> > > anyone know why backupset number different??? > Hi In nocatalog mode the reported key is the record key in the control file. In catalog mode it is the unique key from the backupset table (BS) in the catalog schema (unique in view of all backupsets from all registered databases). This table also stores the record key from the control file. You can check the mapping by querying the columns bs_key and bs_recid of the table BS. Jerome -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l