1.  The exact phrasing doesn't matter.  Avoid overbidding on the sector count.

I note most drives now either express absurd dimensions (35 heads on a 3.5" 
hard drive?  :)) or a sector count only (My drive says "LBA 194868569" or 
something similar for example)

Your copy problems probably result from a partition table which makes no 
sense in the context of the new drive

You might successfully transfer files, but when you start including boot 
sectors and partition tables, I'd worry.

The 'msdos.sys' you get when you format a disc as bootable's NOT the same one 
you get with a full install of Windows 98.

As for a rescue disc, setup discs work fine, as long as you can escape the 
setup  Usually, you have partition tools and such.