determining the path for Oracle data files (dbf) Posted on 23. March 2017 by Gerhard Herrmann Reply The following command can be used (as SYSDBA) to determine the hard drive location of the Oracle data files (dbf): SELECT DISTINCT SUBSTR (file_name, 1, INSTR (file_name, '/', -1, 1)) FROM DBA_DATA_FILES WHERE tablespace_name = 'SYSTEM';