Quick reloading Win98SE?

OK, all my computers have removable hard drives. Beats dual boot cold, and has other advantages, which I will cover in a minute.

I'm thinking of doing some experiments involving malware. I don't want to risk any valuable data, so I'm going to format some old drives (4 gig) and install Win98SE on them. When I screw them up to the point nothing can save them I'll format them and start over.

Basically my thought is if I save the complete setup (OS, drivers, utilities, everthing) on a DVD after I get a good complete install once and then use the Win98SE install floppy and just load them back in on the empty HD.

Any thoughts?

 

I think I understand what you are getting at, Bill

What you would need to do is boot from the floppy and then type SYS C: to get the system files over to the hard drive. Then you could copy the rest of the files back over and I think you should be be good to go.

 

That sounds about right, but one question, what is the command SYS C: ?

Would it work something like

FORMAT C: /S /U

 

Format c /s, or Format C:/SYS 'saves' system files, and formats

I had to refresh on this, and had this link in my favourites that I had not used for a while. Can never remember them all, but............SYS C:.....From paulski.com
A pre-existing and active but non-bootable FAT partition does not have to be re-formatted to make it into a bootable system partition and can just be sys'd by running the DOS program sys.com with the appropriate drive letter. Sys-ing a drive can sometimes fix non-booting Win9XME systems).
A:\>sys C:
http://paulski.com/zpages.php?id=1715
Should be handy to refer to.