You might want to consider the "BACKUP RECOVERY AREA" or "BACKUP RECOVERY FILES" commands to backup your disk backups to tape so that RMAN is aware of them and able to restore them if necessary. You can find some more details and examples here: http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B19306_01/backup.102/b14192/bkscenar002.htm#BRBSC185 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.