Have set 3 log archive destinations:

log_archive_start = true
log_archive_dest_1 = 'location=F:\Oracle\oradata\Athlon\archive1 mandatory'
log_archive_dest_2 = 'location=F:\Oracle\oradata\Athlon\archive2 mandatory reopen=180'
log_archive_dest_3 = 'location=F:\Oracle\oradata\Athlon\archive3 optional'
log_archive_format = %%ORACLE_SID%%T%TS%S.ARC


Have played around with the destinations so that 2+3 will fail just to see what happens. I am expecting the DB to stall. No such luck archive logs are continuing to be written, but where apart from dest 1? Then I find that the archive logs are being written to my OFA directory 'oradata' where all my datafiles are kept. How is this happening as I understand it if the set mandatory archive dests fail then the DB just hangs, not happening here. If a destinatiion fails is there an error against it and if so how can i clear it so the dest can be renabled.

I restart the DB, check the v$archive_dest and all looks okay as the all dests are valid yet logs are still being archived as above that is to dest 1 and the oradata folder??

Any suggestion pls
Gus