Hi Mark, Unfortunately, no difference. What bugs me as well is the difference between the controlfile (20-10-2013) and the checkpoint time of the datafiles (9-8-2013) It's almost as if I've got to versions of the database mixed up, even though this is a copy of a SAN lun that was last changed by the server which is now dead (according my information, that is). How could that happen? SQL> @recreate_controlfile.dba ORACLE instance started. Total System Global Area 70723612 bytes Fixed Size 75804 bytes Variable Size 29609984 bytes Database Buffers 40960000 bytes Redo Buffers 77824 bytes Control file created. SQL> recover database using backup controlfile; ORA-00279: change 84406636 generated at 08/09/2013 01:48:39 needed for thread 1 ORA-00289: suggestion : E:\ORACLE\ORA81\RDBMS\ARC07062.001 ORA-00280: change 84406636 for thread 1 is in sequence #7062 Specify log: {<RET>=suggested | filename | AUTO | CANCEL} auto ORA-00308: cannot open archived log 'E:\ORACLE\ORA81\RDBMS\ARC07062.001' ORA-27041: unable to open file OSD-04002: unable to open file O/S-Error: (OS 2) The system cannot find the file specified. SQL> alter database open resetlogs; alter database open resetlogs * ERROR at line 1: ORA-01113: file 1 needs media recovery ORA-01110: data file 1: 'E:\ORADATA\SUN\SYS1SUN.DBF' Cheers, Tony On 31/10/13 19:52, Mark Burgess wrote: > Hi Tony, > > Just a thought on the sequence of commands. What happens if you: > > 1. Create cf. > 2. Recover database until cancel */using backup controlfile/*. > 3. Open reset logs. > > > Regards, > > Mark > -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l