But of course you should never rely on the contents of any parameter file, just use v$parameter to see the current values for instance or use alert log to find out with which non-default parameters the instance was started. Tanel. > Yes its possible in Windows. Of course you will only read the last > accessed time after having opened both files in a text editor to find > out which one it was. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe send email to: oracle-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put 'unsubscribe' in the subject line. -- Archives are at //www.freelists.org/archives/oracle-l/ FAQ is at //www.freelists.org/help/fom-serve/cache/1.html -----------------------------------------------------------------