Tracy, I don't mean to insult you (or anyone else on the list), but are you *positive* you are looking in the right directory with the right file name? I've seen databases where the *_dump_dest locations are not where I would expect them to be ($ORACLE_BASE/admin/$ORACLE_SID). This is especially confusing when the expected directory structure is there, has some old files, but the instance is pointing to a new location. Daniel Fink ---------------------------------------------------------------- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe send email to: oracle-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put 'unsubscribe' in the subject line. -- Archives are at //www.freelists.org/archives/oracle-l/ FAQ is at //www.freelists.org/help/fom-serve/cache/1.html -----------------------------------------------------------------