<p>When trying to connect to an <code>ORACLE</code> user via TOAD (Quest Software) or any other means (<code>Oracle Enterprise Manager</code>) I get this error:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p><code>ORA-011033: ORACLE initialization or shutdown in progress</code></p>
</blockquote>

After some googling, I found the advice to do the following, and it worked:
```
```
SQL> startup mount

ORACLE Instance started

SQL> recover database 

Media recovery complete

SQL> alter database open;

Database altered
```
```