Sarah, it isn't just under Winduhs, the $ORACLE_BASE/admin was moved under $ORACLE_HOME. If you come to think of that, it makes sense. Database is always managed by certain version of software and you can have several versions under the very same $ORACLE_BASE. Databases that are 10.2 will be under 10.2 software tree, those managed by 9.2 will be under 9.2 software tree, databases running 5.1.22 and 6.0.36 will be under $ORACLE_BASE/Smithsonian software tree. -- Mladen Gogala Ext. 121 -----Original Message----- From: Sarah Satterthwaite [mailto:ssatterthwaite@xxxxxxxxxxx] Sent: Wednesday, October 05, 2005 3:15 PM To: Oracle-L Subject: 10.2 locations for Admin and Oradata directories Oracle 10.2 on Windows I am playing with this and did a default install of the sample database. I was very surprised to find the admin and oradata trees under ORACLE\PRODUCT\10.2.0. Is there any reason why it is desirable to keep then in a version specific tree? Many versions ago they did things that way but then they got smarter and made the Admin and Oradata areas version independent. I know I can do a customized setup and change this, but I am wondering if there is any good reasons to do it the way they did in their sample database. Thanks, Sarah ____________________________________________ Sarah Satterthwaite Database Administrator Fiserv CSW FAX: (617) 498-0959 sarah@xxxxxxxxxxx Fiserv Lending Solutions 125 CambridgePark Drive Cambridge, MA 02140 www.valuserv.com -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l