free space issue

Who can tell me how to free up some space at the beginning of my hard drive??? I need at least 2 megs to install a small diagnostic partition. However, I don't create the partition the diagnostic install program does that if you give it enough space, I've looked at partitioning programs, none seem to clean space at the beginning.. I may have to re-format it, install the diagnostics first, then the os.. this is on an older Compaq laptop, used for a couple of small programs, Win98se os.. looking for a way without the total overhaul. Thanks