Hi All, I'm a bit confused by this RMAN behaviour. I have a full backup and a level 1 incremental a few days later. However if I restore (preview) it only attempts to use the level 1 (example below). Surely this is of no use without the preceeding full backup. What am I missing? Thank you for any hints! (10.2.0.3 EE) Charlotte RMAN> list backup of database summary; List of Backups =============== Key TY LV S Device Type Completion Time #Pieces #Copies Compressed Tag ------- -- -- - ----------- --------------- ------- ------- ---------- --- 397695 B F A DISK 27-MAR-08 1 1 YES TAG20080327T132047 409400 B 1 A DISK 31-MAR-08 1 1 YES TAG20080331T021633 RMAN> restore validate database; Starting restore at 02-APR-08 using channel ORA_DISK_1 channel ORA_DISK_1: starting validation of datafile backupset channel ORA_DISK_1: reading from backup piece /oracle/FRA/TESTDB/backupset/2008_03_31/o1_mf_nnnd1_TAG20080331T021633_3z0gvkk3_.bkp channel ORA_DISK_1: restored backup piece 1 piece handle=/oracle/FRA/TESTDB/backupset/2008_03_31/o1_mf_nnnd1_TAG20080331T021633_3z0gvkk3_.bkp tag=TAG20080331T021633 channel ORA_DISK_1: validation complete, elapsed time: 00:00:47 Finished restore at 02-APR-08 ____________________________________________________________________________________ You rock. That's why Blockbuster's offering you one month of Blockbuster Total Access, No Cost. http://tc.deals.yahoo.com/tc/blockbuster/text5.com -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l