Bernard, you will not find it, there is no "X" that marks the block. You will RECONSTRUCT a consistent version of The block by applying all "undo vectors" to a current or a consistent version of the block. Mladen Gogala Sr. Oracle DBA 1500 Broadway, 6th floor New York, NY 10036 (212) 329-5201 www.vmsinfo.com <http://www.vmsinfo.com/> The Leader in Integrated Media Intelligence Solutions _____ From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Polarski, Bernard Sent: Thursday, January 25, 2007 9:42 AM To: daniel.fink@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx; adolph.tony@xxxxxxxxxx Cc: oracle-l Subject: RE: UNTO TBS behavior in 9i As far as I know, you will find a before image of a block in the case of the first transaction that hits a block in a tablespace set in 'backup mode'. Subsequent change to the block will only generate undo vectors. So there is at least a case where you copy a full before image of a block. However this was true for 8i. I would be surprised if it has changed since as hot backup are rather deprecated in favor or Rman. Bernard Polarski Oracle DBA