Dex, You have to start the service with "net start OracleServer". But you can then use sqlplus to shutdown and restart with whatever pfile you want to. The service has to be running to start the database. -------------------------------------------------------- This transmission may contain confidential, proprietary, or privileged information which is intended solely for use by the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, dissemination, copying or distribution of this transmission or its attachments is strictly prohibited. In addition, unauthorized access to this transmission may violate federal or State law, including the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1985. If you have received this transmission in error, please notify the sender immediately by return e-mail and delete the transmission and its attachments. -----Original Message----- From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of J. Dex Sent: Tuesday, August 29, 2006 2:57 PM To: oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Manually starting database on Windows On Windows 2003, how can you manually connect to the database and then start a database using a new pfile? I am used to UNIX and just being able to login to sqlplus as sysdba but that doesn't work on Windows. If everything isn't first started via "net start OracleService<SID>", then I am getting listener errors when just trying to connect to the database. Everything was stopped using net stop OracleService<SID>. This is a situation where I don't want the database to come back up again using old parameters. _________________________________________________________________ Search from any web page with powerful protection. Get the FREE Windows Live Toolbar Today! http://get.live.com/toolbar/overview -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l