quick disaster recovery question

I didn't find it in the manuals and I pretty sure that it can't be done, but I thought I'd check.
I have an 8.0.6 database that is shutdown and backed up Sat. night and restarted.
I keep backup the archive logs and they're shipped off site. now it's Mon. afternoon and a disaster occurs where we have to recreate the environment.
the only thing I have is the cold backup and the archive logs that were shipped off site.

I was thinking I couldn't recover past the cold backup, but my boss says I can apply the archives after the backup. who is right?
My initial thought is that all the files would be in sync and the archives wouldn't be needed and that I couldn't force Oracle to apply them. His thoughts are that if I have them, Oracle should do what I tell it too :)

What's the right answer?
any advice for this type of scenario where the whole database is taken out?

Thanks,
Steve Received on Thu Jun 13 2002 - 13:11:12 CDT