Program to create restore CD from installed 98SE?

[bizzybody]

I'm installing 98SE on a pesky PC-Chips 598LMR board. Installed Windows, the unofficial SP2, native USB drivers, directx 9.0c, an SiS 6326 PCI card because the junky SiS 530 built in video is totally unsupported by any directX past 7.1.

All that tricky stuff that'd be impossible for a newbie to get reinstalled properly if the system gets hosed by a virus etc. (I know it'd be tricky because I did something in just the wrong order and hosed IE6's ability to access windows update, amongst other nasty problems. Got it all right the 2nd time!)

I want to make a bootable CD that'll nuke and pave the system and restore the whole thing to "factory condition" just like what comes with a HP, Dell, Gateway etc box.

[Randy Rhoads]

Personally i use Drive Image 6, AKA version 2002 which restores the entire partition and all which is better and faster than most OEM disks that just reinstalls Windows overtop or formats and reinstalls.

If the drive has enough space i always create a 2nd "D" partition with enough space to save restore image files later on. Drive Image allows you to create a bootable cd to run its image software. Once you get Windows the way you want do a defrag, boot from the cd and choose to save the image files on the D partition with the option enabled to split the images into 670MB parts.

Once done i boot into Windows and use a ISO program called WinISO to create an ISO image of my Drive Image bootable CD. I then open that ISO with WinISO and add the 1st, or only, 98 image file i created and saved on the D partition, save changes and exit WinISO. With 98 there shouldnt be more than one image file anyway as its a small install and the contents get compressed pretty well if you keep the large optional installs off. If you just stick to small optional software like messengers, etc you can get 98, ME , and 2000 compressed to just one image file. If they are more than 1 then just add the 1st image file to that ISO.

Now just burn the saved ISO to cd and you have a bootable restore disk. If they are more than one image file then just burn the rest of the image files as a data cd because only the 1st one needs to be bootable. Not as fancy as the OEM, but faster. Generally it should'nt take more than 15 minutes to restore a 98 install with 1 to 2 image files.

The latest Drive Image 7 is now owned and supported by Symantec i think and requires .net installed before you can install the software to create the bootable cd. If you can find an older version 6 on say Ebay, etc, then its the one to use IMO. WinISO isnt free ither, but they may be freeware to to the exact same thing.