this scenario does NOT indicate a flakey hard drive.
first, you did the resets "backwards" if you are about to reset both the telephone system and the voice mail do the reset on the voicemail first and don't reinitialize it.
second, if I am reading this correctly, you did a **startup on the telephone system, if there is no fibre expansion card in the ksu it will come up as a 2 digit dn, you then did a reinstall on the nam on the telephone system you just restart as two digits, you then did a f983 with the password and initialized the nam (on the system with a two digit dn) you then moved the nam into the lab on a system with a three digit dn. change the lab system to two digits and try again.
feature 916...
on your lab system you previously had a nam on there, you didn't do the proper shut down/didn't remove the feature codes using **xftest. when you powered up the nam you are currently working on it recognized the new system and that f915 was taken by another nam. this nam will now and forever have to use f916 to enter access. the next nam you plug into that system unless you remove the feature codes first/perform a proper shut down will have f917 as the access feature.
just to be clear, this is not an equipment problem, you have dug your self into a little hole that can be reversed. in your previous posts you did state the mailboxes were two digits. that indicates the nam was initialized at two digits. set this nam up on a phone system with two digits and enter a 6 digit login as opposed to the 7 digit login you would use on a system with a three digit dn.
confused yet??
Some people are like slinkies...not really good for anything, but seeing one tumble down the stairs makes you smile!