Oracle Solution for Error ora-01178

ORA-01178: file string created before last CREATE CONTROLFILE, cannot recreate

What triggered the Error:

Attempted to use ALTER DATABASE CREATE DATAFILE to recreate a datafile that existed at the last CREATE CONTROLFILE command. The information needed to recreate the file was lost with the control file that existed when the file was added to the database.

What should we do to fix it:

Find a backup of the file, and recover it. Do incomplete recovery to time before file was originally created.