Is it possible to restore an image to reformated disk

I have win 98se and I have had it running since 2002 and would like to reformat my hard drive and reload win 98se. My computer has an 80 gig hard drive and 1 gig ram, I know how to set win 98 to see the ram but I do not know how to set win 98 to recognize the large hard drive ( windows 98... 8 gig limit) I have read that this is done with the bios, but I have also read that win 98 has to be tweaked. (I can't remember how I did it years ago) If I have trouble reformating and reloading windows I was wondering if I could simply restore my existing TI image back to my "main" formated drive from my second internal hard drive. I am using TI 9.0.3677.
Does anybody know? Has anybody tried this?

 

Why do you want to format your main disk?

If you feel that you want to tidy up your W98 because there might be lots of unused data and settings, then run a good registry cleaner such as Regseeker to tidy up your registry, use CCleaner to tidy up your Windows and use Advance Windows Care to tweak your Windows. They are all free programs. Downloads for all of the above can be found by googling.

If you have to restore your image to a formatted disk then you will be wasting your time as the image restores your original settings, defeating the purpose of formatting.

 

Thank-you for your response mark3
I do all the things you suggest as normal maintenance, if you were to try a search on your registry you will find that there is not a registry cleaner anywhere that removes all the junk accumulated over the years (not ccleaner,regseeker,easycleaner or regmechnic all of which I use). I have always found that all windows os work better with a reformat and reloading the os. after a long time in service,is Like giving my computer an enema so to speak. The reason I ask the question is that if I am not successful with reinstalling my WIN 98se ( re: as mentioned the windows 98se hard drive limit of 8 gigs, plus the 512 meg limit that is resident in windows 9 I would then restore my operating system back to my image, which at this time is still running fine. I have tweaked my Win98se and I have very little problems with it. I very seldom have crashes or stalls.

 

I don't use 98 much anymore so I don't know about any TI problems with it but I think they fixed the recent problems of it not running in the latest build.

AFAIK, W98 does not have any problem with large HDs at least those in the 80GB range; the problems lie in the BIOS of old motherboards not recognizing over 8GB. If your MB/BIOS sees it W98 will be happy. I think there is a problem around the 137GB boundary though.

I used to reload W98 at least once a year to clean and speed it up. XP is far superior in that regard. I have never reloaded on this machine and I have been running XP for several years on it.

 

Hi seekforever, I appreciate your input.
I am pretty sure you are right about the mother board and bios, which both are relatively new on my computer ( a little over a year old). So one day this winter I will try reinstalling win 98se, probably for the last time. (sob) and if problems come up I will try restoring my image using TI.
Everyone on this forum seems to agree with you that XP is a better operating system ( except me, I find it very hard to tweak and bloated unlike win 98se ). Call me old fashioned! I know time is closing in on me.

 

To all those who are following this post. I Got this email from Acronis support'
Thank you for your interest in Acronis True Image 9.0 Home http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/

Please accept our apologies for the delay with the response.

> >will I be able to restore my image back using my rescue disk?

You will always be able to restore the previously created image of your system having booted from a bootable rescue media.

 

Hello dbknox,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Yes, you will be able to do this. As seekforever previous builds 3625 and 3633 did not run on Windows 98 Second Edition or Windows Millenium Edition. The latest build (and also all builds after 3633) can be installed and successfully used on both Windows 98 Second Edition or Windows Millenium Edition.

Thank you.
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Aleksandr Isakov