I want to copy my files from ASM storage (a rac instance) to standard file system and build a normal copy of the database. 11g r2. I tried the asmcmd "cp" command. After recovery and finding I need to set some undocumented parameter...fixing the UNDO tablespace name and a few other mistakes I tried to do recovery again and got this error. SQL> recover database using backup controlfile until cancel; ORA-00283: recovery session canceled due to errors ORA-16433: The database must be opened in read/write mode. Some searching gives me the idea that "cp" won't work to backup an ASM database (the database was in backup mode when I copied the files). My next guess is to try the RMAN CONVERT DATAFILE command to do this. Anyone have experience with either this or the "cp" command? What is working for you? Thanks