Oracle databases not starting

All,

I had a complete working Oracle installation but noticed a problem when trying to run toad or sqlplus. When I checked the services it showed my database service as in the 'starting' state. I left it for a long time but the state didn't change.

I have deinstalled and reinstalled Oracle and even sadly removed the my two databases in an effort to get things working.

Having reinstalled Oracle, I get the following when trying to use sqlplus

D:\>sqlplus

SQL*Plus: Release 8.1.6.0.0 - Production on Wed May 2 08:08:35 2001

(c) Copyright 1999 Oracle Corporation. All rights reserved.

Enter user-name: system
Enter password: password
ERROR:
ORA-12560: TNS:protocol adapter error

Enter user-name:

I have no idea what a TNS: protocol adapter error is.

Can someone please help. It am keen to be able to resolve these type of problems on my own - could someone recommend a book or series of books? Received on Wed May 02 2001 - 02:31:31 CDT