hello

>   Wondering if there was a storage expansion box sold with the same foot
> print as the 5000/2[0,4,6]0, or were the expansion units that DEC sold with
> these machine the same box as [VAX,DEC]server 3100?

right, the disk boxes that were of the 'decstation' style were all the 
BA42's, that is, the box that the [dv]s[23]100s came in. 

>   Second I was looking for help with purchasing drives for my DEC 5000.
> The drives I have purchased off of ebay have all died slow deaths and I'd like
> to purchase a new drive.  I think I'm correct in saying that these machines
> have SCSI-2 NCR controllers on board, but that is about where my knowledge
> stops.  What drives will work, any SCSI drive that isn't HVD and has a fifty
> pin connection (or can be converted to 50pin)?  Does that include Ultra SCSI-2
> or Fast SCSI-2, or even SCSI-3?

generally, scsi3, etc disks will switch down to the lowest common 
denominator. fast scsi-2 disks will clock down if its a 5 mhz bus, and so 
on. you'll need adaptors of course. 
isildur