ES40 will corrupt file system within several minutes (changes file permissions for one)
Can you please go to my web site (http://people.redhat.com/dledford) and download and run the memory test script to see if your machine is failing the memory test work regularly. This is usually used to indicate hardware errors, but can also indicate kernel errors (specifically on the Alpha, if the generic kernel is not working properly with the ES40 then it might cause corruptions).
Do you still see this on RHL 7/Alpha?
Record inactive Assumming this is no longer a problem