Hi, everybody! I already solved it. Thank you. First of, I forgot to mention the version(), so FYI, 7.4.1. I followed Tom's advice in http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-general/2004-03/msg01073.php I shut down the PG instance. postgres -D $PG_DATA -O -P $DBNAME =# REINDEX DATABASE tbc_gamma <EOF> -P was necessary for the standalone backend to ignore the (damaged) indexes. Done. Hope this helps someone else someday. ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 3: if posting/reading through Usenet, please send an appropriate subscribe-nomail command to majordomo@postgresql.org so that your message can get through to the mailing list cleanly