Sadly I have no idea what would work with PartedMagic, but....

I use PowerQuest Drive Image (version 5.01, but newer might work also).

1. Creating a 'backup' image file of the C: partition I want to clone. Burn to a DVD and/or copy to the target disk, see below.

2. Preformat/partitioning the target disk(80gb) with PowerQuest Partition Magic(v8.0), I usually make a small(5gb?) C: and a larger D: (and E:, if I feel like curbing the rampant wasted space due to many small files)

3. Then there's just booting with a boot disk/PQ start disk, and restoring the image to C: from a DVD (or pre-copied to the D: partition, but haven't tested that). Doesnt matter if the target C: partition is much bigger than the previous location (went from 2gb to 20gb) as long as it is preformatted.

OR... and I don't remember if I tried this... just restore the C: image directly to the target disk from the same PC you preformatted the disk from. Then install disk into the other PC and boot normally.

Assuming no other hardware has changed, it should then be smooth sailing.

I have had no problems whatsoever with this method - i.e. defrag works. Of course, if you do not have the PowerQuest programs, this info probably would be of little help... 😊

I use Clonezilla to save and restore Windows 98 images all the time. Hasn't let me down yet! The time savings are mind-boggling relative to clean installs.

I've never needed to resize a restored partition, but I would probably do this as a separate step in GParted or something similar. I would be very surprised if GParted had any trouble resizing a FAT32 partition.

My understanding of Clonezilla is that it copies files rather than sectors, so it shouldn't be necessary to defragment a partition after restoring it. Not sure if this would apply to PartedMagic as well.

For the record, I've found that the easiest way to do all this is to do it on a modern machine. I don't have to worry about Clonezilla having compatibility problems, and I can save / restore the images directly to / from a large hard drive. I just remove the Windows 98 drive from its machine and connect it using an IDE to USB adapter. It takes a few minutes to set up, but it sure beats installing from scratch.

Grab this - http://www.partitionwizard.com/activity/special-offer.html
One of the best partition twiddlers, and you could convert the cluster size to one that is ok with scandisk/defrag

in case they're relevant, which I doubt they are

your current target spec are ok for win98.

in case you may want to do this again:
- unpatched win98 having trouble with RAM more than 512 MB
- unpatched win98 may only use 28 bits from 56 bits LBA, meaning it will have serious issues accessing data located beyond 128 GB (or is it GiB?) boundary.

So, basically: I don't have to reinstall Win98 from scratch? Running a cloned install isn't gonna cause difficulties down the road?

Also, what's a good linux for defragging, since clearly Windows can't do it anymore?

Why would it? Have you tried any 3rd party defrag tools for Windows 9x?

On your new Harddrive do not use Partitions bigger than 32gb...

Win98 SE destroys himself if installed on Partition bigger than 32 GB.
(and Scandisk Found lots of errors.)

I think there musst be a patch for Windows 98 to use up to 128 GB.
But i never tryed it.

I use the First 32 GB for win98 , the Rest for ubuntu Linux.

That's not what I found.

128 GiB is the limit. A few DOS command line tools crap out at 64, but disk checker and defrag work fine with a 128 GiB drive.

http://www.philscomputerlab.com/windows-98-ma … e-capacity.html

Windows 98 is hardy.

I've used "XCOPY /E" to transfer the "WINDOWS" and "Program Files" directories from one disk to another, without any issues.

DosFreak wrote:

Why would it? Have you tried any 3rd party defrag tools for Windows 9x?

In the OP I asked if such tools existed. Nobody has named any yet.

philscomputerlab wrote:

That's not what I found.

128 GiB is the limit. A few DOS command line tools crap out at 64, but disk checker and defrag work fine with a 128 GiB drive.

http://www.philscomputerlab.com/windows-98-ma … e-capacity.html

I've found out now that there ist no Problem if the BIOS used LBA.

But Phoenix BIOS uses Bit-shift for large Drives and theres a Patch to break 32 GB Limit.

Scandisk for example will Report Errors if scanning the Part of HDD after the 32 GB.

I've use a Siemens Scaleo PC and i think it has a Phoenix BIOS.

I was not able to install on a 80 GB Partition. When i Type SETUP it first runs Scandisk which gave me Errors. After reducing to 32 GB Partition there was no more Error on Scandisk.

I use Ghost to clone win9x installation. Works perfectly, you can even change partition size while cloning.

Sammy wrote:

On your new Harddrive do not use Partitions bigger than 32gb... […]
Show full quote

On your new Harddrive do not use Partitions bigger than 32gb...

Win98 SE destroys himself if installed on Partition bigger than 32 GB.
(and Scandisk Found lots of errors.)

I think there musst be a patch for Windows 98 to use up to 128 GB.
But i never tryed it.

I use the First 32 GB for win98 , the Rest for ubuntu Linux.

First of all, that's wrong. I installed and used Windows 98 SE into disks up to 128GB, without any problems so far (well, for years, actually). If your system is fully ok with drives with 128 GB size (i.e. no BIOS issues), then Windows 98 SE is quite happy working with them, according to my experience.

I did cloned w9x (and many other OS partitions) mostly without problem. I simply use an old DOS version of Norton Ghost (I don't remember which version exactly, but it can be put into a 3.5" HD bootable floppy with ease) that I get some time ago as a promotion (with an HDD or something?). Actually when I put together a system, and installed the OS and all mandatories (drivers, utilities, etc.), I generally clone the partition as a safety measure. This Ghost is easily working with MS-DOS, FreeDOS, DR-DOS, PC-DOS, W9x, Windows NT (all versions), Windows XP, Windows 2000 and OS/2 3 & 4. Never tried it with any kind of Linux.

The only particular problem I've encountered in imaging and cloning partitions (I use some flavor of Paragon) is that occasionally the "Active" flag has gotten messed up and wound up some place it wasn't supposed to be. But if you only have one or two primary partitions, that's not really an issue.

I've installed Win98SE on a big FAT32 partition before, but never tried running Defrag or Scandisk. I'm not sure what to suggest otherwise, except maybe an old version of Norton Utilities/Systemworks.