The direct-path insert restriction with the non-unique index used to be there up to 10.2. It's no longer there in 11.1 and 11.2, however the change introduced another subtle (and nasty) questionable behaviour, see here: http://oracle-randolf.blogspot.com/2008/11/primary-key-unique-constraints-enforced.html It looks like this potential bug hasn't been addressed yet. Randolf > Mark, > > Is your primary key protected by a non-unique constraint ? That would disable > direct path load. Also, although you say you have no enabled FKs, the output > you've shown does have an FK in ENABLE NOVALIDATE mode. > > Regards > Jonathan Lewis -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l