Disk replacement in an AS 200 4/166 ("Avanti")

Dear Alpha Linux users,

I ask for your comments about this issue:

My AlphaStation 200 4/166 (called an "Avanti", AFAIK?) has two internal 
SCSI disks, a RZ26L and a RZ28 (1 and 2 GB). I use it during office 
hours, it is powered off at night and during weekends. The machine is 
booted using the ARC bios.

It is happening more and more that on power on / boot the second disk 
does not come up and I have to reboot, sometimes the whole boot is
blocked 
(blue ARC screen) and only the "reset" button will help.

I assume that the disks are dieing and I should replace them. 

1) Will any SCSI disk (5,25", low height, single-ended, narrow) work in 
   this machine, or is there any specific requirement? 
   As low-capacity disks have gone out of fashion (but I do not need 
   large disks in it): Is there some upper capacity limit?

2) Once I get a new disk: 
   I would prefer copying my current file systems rather than install 
   anew, and I can connect a new disk in an external SCSI cabinet. 
   As the ARC / MILO boot sequence does understand the FAT file system, 
   I guess it is just a matter of "fdisk", several "mkfs", and 
   several "cpio -p" to copy everything, then the physical replacement - 
   or did I forget any essential step?

3) I remember several posting saying "prefer SRM over ARC": 
   Are there impelling reasons to do that switch, or should I go with 
   "if it ain't broken ...". I currently use SuSE 7.0 (kernel 2.2.16) 
   and feel no need to upgrade - this is used as an X terminal mainly.

Thank you for hints, 
Joerg Bruehe

-- 
Joerg Bruehe, SQL Datenbanksysteme GmbH, Berlin, Germany
     (speaking only for himself)
mailto: [email protected]