Gene, Unrecoverable is a synonym for nologging. Direct loads can be logging or nologging. Logging direct loads are recoverable. Nologging direct loads are not recoverable, which is where the term unrecoverable comes from. Hope that helps, -Mark -- Mark J. Bobak Senior Database Administrator, System & Product Technologies ProQuest 789 E. Eisenhower, Parkway, P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor MI 48106-1346 +1.734.997.4059 or +1.800.521.0600 x 4059 mark.bobak@xxxxxxxxxxxx www.proquest.com www.csa.com ProQuest...Start here. -----Original Message----- From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of genegurevich@xxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2008 12:41 PM To: oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: direct load and direct load unrecoverable Helli everyone: I have been reading information on Don Burleson's site about direct load unrecoverable as a way to speed up the load (http://www.remote-dba.net/teas_rem_util18.htm) among other things. I have never used this parameter (unrecoverable) in SQL*Loader before and I always though that SQL*Loader in direct mode does not create any archived logfiles and therefore if a database needs to be restored, the tables that were loaded via SQL*Loader in direct mode won't be restored. After reading this · Use unrecoverable. The unrecoverable option (unrecoverable load data) disables the writing of the data to the redo logs. This option is available for direct path loads only It seems that a table that was loaded via SQL*Loader with direct mode (but not unrecoverable) will be "restorable" from a backup. Is that correct interpretation? thank you Gene Gurevich -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l