Delete Oracle Database

[tkemory]

Hello,

I am new to Oracle and have been playing around on test machine trying to get used to how it is put together.

So far I have created a couple of databases. For some reason I am having trouble hooking up my listener correctly. After I created the listener I had to manually start it up (no big deal). One of the databases however was reporting it's status as unknown and I have yet to determine why.

What I would like to do is just delete the databases and start over, is there not an easy way to do this? I spent quite a bit of time with the search engines to no avail.

I have thought about stopping the services and trying to manually remove the directories and cleaning up the registery entries (which I know is what you have to do to correctly un-install oracle), but surely there is an easier way.

Any help would be appreciated,
Terri Emory

 

[SantaMufasa]

Terri,

Here are steps to remove an Oracle database/instance (presuming that you are using a Windose-based machine):

1) Document the names of your database files. You will need these names later to delete the files and free up the disk storage space. While your Oracle instance is still up and running, from SQL*Plus:

select name from v$controlfile;
select member from v$logfile;
select file_name from dba_data_files;

2) Shutdown the database:

sqlplus /nolog
connect / as sysdba
shutdown abort

3) Shutdown the Oracle service:

Start...Settings...Control Panel...Administrative Tools...Services. <right-click>OracleService<SID>..Stop

4) Remove the Oracle Instance (from a Windose command prompt):

oradim -delete -sid <old-SID-Name>

5) Remove now-obsolete data files. Delete the data files resulting from Step 1, above.
6) Remove now-obsolete directories. If you have used Oracle's Oracle Flexible Architecure (OFA) directory structures, remove any directories that relate to the now-obsolete Oracle instance such as "Oracle/Admin/<SID>...".

Let us know if you have any additional questions.

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)

http://www.dasages.com

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