Dapi, Crickey! Your're a busy bee. Thanks for all the pointers will give them a go on Tue

Anandkl, Thanks for the suggestion will also try that out.

I managed to get the db back up recreating the service using oraDim and took a back up of the data. I then rebooted the server so see whether the problem was sorted sinc then I've been unable to get the db up again and the oraDim option doesn't work any more.

So will try your suggestions in earnest on Tue. No that I've got the data off as a last resort I'll blow the whole thing away and start again.

Cheers Al