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

>From: Joerg Bruehe <[email protected]>
>Subject: Disk replacement in an AS 200 4/166 ("Avanti")
>Date: Tue, 10 Dec 2002 18:11:02 +0100
>
>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.

My AS 250 4/266 started doing this for a while before it totally
died recently.  I thought it was the drives, but they had no problems
running (and starting up) on other systems.  My symptoms were that
at first power up, certain drives were not visible.  After a few
iterations of the cpu failing to boot from the drive, it magically
shows up, and the system boots.  I also had a problem with an Exabyte
drive screwing up the SCSI bus.  But again, if I put it on another
system, it would have no problems.

One thing I always suspected was that there was never sufficient
cooling for those internal disk drives.  I lost two drives early on
before I started to install just one drive in the slots.

>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?

I think they are 3.5" form factors.  I don't recall the exact name used
todescribe their heights, but in mine, there was room for one 1.6" and
one 1" high drive.  The largest drive I've connected to mine were 9 GB,
and I believe most manufacturers are discontinuing these.

eyc