How to fix a corrupted OS installation. formerly Re: Reaching the tipping point on my JS12 blade

No way I can describe the countless hours I have spent with the Blade Center folks trying to get my i partition on the JS12 to keep running. The partition crashes when the blade loses contact with the SAS storage module. The BCS folks say it is an IBM i OS issue, or at least think so, although I have yet to understand the connection between the i OS and the SAS storage module. The module comes up missing with no SAS drives even though I haven't even started the partition. The blade doesn't even see the SAS module so I don't see how the i partition even plays here. I DO know this, if you run the i partition long enough, it will fail. How long, nobody knows.....

So here is the latest depressing news. Convinced that IBM i was source of the problem, the BCS folks recommended I load the latest CUME. I spent a day and a half downloading the entire CUME and managed this afternoon to get the files ftp'd to the partition and an image catalog built and loaded. So I started the process of loading a PTF package and, you guessed it, the blade crashed about 75% through the process, at the point where it was setting the IPL actions.

So here (after my whining) is my question:

1. Can I re-load the OS without hammering my data?
2. If I don't lose my data, what do I lose by re-installing the OS?
I don't think I have ever tried to re-install the OS, except from scratch.

Seems to me that yes, I can reinstall, although the thought of the partition crashing in the middle of *that* send chills down my spine. Right now the partition will IPL on the A side (just like an earlier post from me back last fall) but as far as I can recall, it seems to me there is no way to "fix" the B side without re-loading from DVD. But I don't want to lose the data.

This is such a bummer and time waster......

Pete Helgren