Lost ability to start Oracle!

This is all using Oracle8 Personal:
Not fully understanding what I was doing, I accidentally overwrote an (unused, I'm pretty sure)
tablespace file with text (using Oracle). When I subsequently tried to DROP the tablespace,
of course I was not allowed to (header problem, as I recall).

But I was still running Oracle at that point. I then had the 'clever' idea of creating the same
tablespace with the same file name on another machine. After I rebooted the problem
computer, I copied over THAT file as a replacement. Of course, now I can't even run Oracle
at all. The message at attempted startup is "ORA-1034: Oracle Not Available."

I tried using Recovery Manager with the Automatic option. The error message from that was
ORA-1122. The help file for this error suggests (among other things) that the problem could
arise if

• The control file is from a time earlier than the datafiles. (Well, that's certainly true in this case. ),
• The datafile size does not match the size specified in the control file. (That MIGHT be true, too. I couldn't recall the original size with certainty.)
• The datafile is corrupted. (That could be true if the control file has a CRC or something that tracks the data in the file.)

Since I don't need the file OR the tablespace created using it, is there a simple way out of my
problem?
By the way, I don't have any sophisticated developer tools, other than what comes with
Oracle 8 personal.

FWIW: I also tried replacing the problem file with an old text file. That changed the error from
Recovery Manager to ORA-1157.
TIA >>> Robert Received on Wed Jul 12 2000 - 00:00:00 CDT