Consider these points: - When possible, we always gracefully shutdown the applications connected to a production database before shutting the database down itself. Couldn't you do the same? Often this is a matter of getting the apps support people involved. If they don't have procedures for such a graceful shutdown, it is imperative they be developed! This is especially true for Oracle apps. - I have seen where a SHUTDOWN ABORT operation causes the subsequent recovery required by the STARTUP to take just as long as the SHUTDOWN IMMEDIATE. I do believe this is a 10g bug, and it should be vigorously followed up with Oracle if you are encountering it and the above does not resolve the issue. -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l