Re: help with recovery

"daveb" <davebest_at_SuPsAaM.net> wrote in message news:EtOdnRJrCONcV_3dRVn-tw_at_speakeasy.net...
> We have a small test database (9.2.0.1 on Windows 2000) and the hard-drive
> just fried. Should be no biggie since we have create scripts for the
> schema. But now we find we need some of the test data...no db backup on
> that, d'oh. But it turns out that we have a copy of the oracle directory.

Strangely enough, some degree of precision is required when describing a problem before a solution can usefully be offered. What oracle directory? Do you mean the "oradata" directory? If so, what -exactly- is in that directory? Are there control files? Are there things which look like redo logs? Are there all the data files of the entire database before the hard disk failure?

You know, just a few minor details would help!

> The question is how to access it.

The question is, what is there to access?? See above.

>I did a fresh Oracle install on another
> machine

Good.

>and created a database of the same name,

Oh dear. Why do people insist on creating new databases when their actual objective is to recover the old one?

Listen Dave: it comes down to what exactly is in that directory of which you have a backup. If all the data files are there, and all the control files, and all the online redo logs, then all you've got to do after re-installing Oracle itself is to create a service with the same name as the original database had. You may well have to re-create an initXXX.ora with a couple of parameters such as control_files, db_block_size, undo_tablespace and db_name set appropriately as well, because I suspect that your spfile and/or init.ora were stored somewhere other than your oradata directory (but without the details, I'm only guessing).

If your oradata directory contains a database, then you can get your database back. Not start using a new one. (It will depend, too, on how exactly you took that copy of the oradata directory, but that's another issue we can probably leave till its needed).

>and ensured it was
> accessible.
> Copying over the old oracle\oradata directory didn't work, so I also
copied
> oracle\ora92\database. Still no go. I get ORA-12523: TNS: listener could
> not find instance appropriate for the client connection.

Well, listener errors have got absolutely nothing to do with recovering a database, do they? Red herring. Get your database back first, and then start worrying about establishing connectivity to it.

> I figure I'm missing something related to the control files, but am in
over
> my head at this point.

Start with something that should be under everyone's head: details and specifics. "Didn't work" isn't going to be much help in future posts, either. Specific error messages or problems encountered, always. And not just error numbers.

And then we can start talking.

Regards
HJR Received on Tue Mar 23 2004 - 18:10:23 CST