Hey Robert, > Hmmmm..... are you doing any backups using the keep option? No, or not on purpose at least. Until last week, I had scheduled my RMAN backups via Grid Control (it was a feeble attempt at reducing maintenance documentation and training, being a solo DBA). I checked using "LIST BACKUP SUMMARY" and confirmed from the DB with: select * from v$backup_piece where deleted != 'YES' order by start_time; ...and I only get the expected last 1 day+ of backups listed. The query sans the WHERE clause brings back 32K rows however. > Oracle9i RMAN Backup and Recovery (Oracle Press) That's on my desk, next to the 10g version. :) Thanks! Rich -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l