Or in 10g you just do an alter database end backup... So, if that possibility exists make your startup script: startup mount; alter database end backup; alter database open; Viola, no problems!! RF Robert G. Freeman Oracle Consultant/DBA/Author Principal Engineer/Team Manager The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Father of Five, Husband of One, Author of various geeky computer titles from Osborne/McGraw Hill (Oracle Press) Oracle Database 11g New Features Now Available for Pre-sales on Amazon.com! Sig V1.1 -----Original Message----- From: Jared Still [mailto:jkstill@xxxxxxxxx] Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2007 2:43 PM To: andrew.kerber@xxxxxxxxx Cc: robertgfreeman@xxxxxxxxx; oracle-l Subject: Re: Query Database while shutdown in progress On 6/27/07, Andrew Kerber <andrew.kerber@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: What happens if you have datafiles in backup mode and you try and do a startup force? select 'alter database datafile ' || '''' || f.name || '''' || ' end backup;' from v$datafile f, v$backup b where b.status = 'ACTIVE' and f.file# = b.file# / run the generated SQL. -- Jared Still Certifiable Oracle DBA and Part Time Perl Evangelist