i guess you have had offline files on the source database? and offline since a long time? check and compare status and checkpoint_change# in v$datafile_header. if yes: you could try to skip the problematic datafile using a syntax like: recover datafile 1,2,3, ... until cancel using backup controlfile; #just all files but the problematic file(s) Cheers Mathias -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l