Install win 98 without reformat

I have an interesting problem which I haven't seen discussed before.
A couple of years ago I got a new 20GB hard drive for an old computer.
The bios of this computerdoes not support a hard drive this large so
the guys at the computer shop used some kind of overlay software to
format the drive so that the full 20 GB could be read. If you format
with the DOS format command the drive will only see a out 6GB. The
guys at the shop said this overlay software is difficult to use and a
person, like myself, with only moderate computer knowledge would have
difficulty using it. For various reasons ( especially a possible
undetected trojan or worm), I would really like to start from scratch
and wipe this drive clean and reinstall Windows 98 and apps. Would
it be possible to get rid of everything on the C: drive by using the
DOS deltree command to delete all the subdirectories in the C: drive?
This seems like it should wipe the drive clean well enough so that
there would be no problems with a complete reinstall but and I would
not lose the format. The deltree command is supposed to delete all
hidden files, but I had some concern that there would still be some
things that could not be fully erased without a reformat and this
could affect the installation.

Deltree will do what you require. Format is probably OK too, as the
software you mention works at the level of the disk partitioning. In fact,
it's quite difficult to get rid of.

Where you might get into trouble is if you boot from a DOS floppy disk and
try to format or partition the disk. Because the overlay software driver
has not been loaded in the boot process then it might be possible to run a
procedure that removes it. You should have a special way of booting to
floppy that ensures that the overlay is loaded - for instance by starting
the boot from hard disk and interrupting it, or by preparing and booting
from a special floppy.

You can use Format if, immediately before running it, you use a utility like
CHKDSK (or even DIR) to confirm that the operating system currently sees a
20GB disk. If the OS sees a disk that is significantly smaller than 20Gb
then there is some risk that you might delete the overlay. A floppy boot
(using the correct procedure) and a FORMAT is the process I would recommend,
as it will replace everything on the partition.
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (DTS)

"Ralph Taylor" wrote in message
om...
I have an interesting problem which I haven't seen discussed before.
A couple of years ago I got a new 20GB hard drive for an old computer.
The bios of this computerdoes not support a hard drive this large so
the guys at the computer shop used some kind of overlay software to
format the drive so that the full 20 GB could be read. If you format
with the DOS format command the drive will only see a out 6GB. The
guys at the shop said this overlay software is difficult to use and a
person, like myself, with only moderate computer knowledge would have
difficulty using it. For various reasons ( especially a possible
undetected trojan or worm), I would really like to start from scratch
and wipe this drive clean and reinstall Windows 98 and apps. Would
it be possible to get rid of everything on the C: drive by using the
DOS deltree command to delete all the subdirectories in the C: drive?
This seems like it should wipe the drive clean well enough so that
there would be no problems with a complete reinstall but and I would
not lose the format. The deltree command is supposed to delete all
hidden files, but I had some concern that there would still be some
things that could not be fully erased without a reformat and this
could affect the installation.