I re-build and upgrade old PC's for the handicapped and disabled. I obtain these for free from people who don't want them anymore, and fix them and give them away for free also. I have an IBM Aptiva. Ali mb, and an HP Pavillion - Sis mb, that both have identical Quantum Bigfoot TX hd's running Win98 not SE. These have been formatted to 4 gig, but are capable of 12 gig according to Quantum site. When I looked up more info on the mb's- they both have onboard sound/video/usb/ps2 etc. - I found info that stated all the chipset drivers etc., for each of these was stored on a hidden partition on the HD. If I format these drives to get rid of junk/spyware/personal data that was left on them, will it wipe out the hidden partitions? Also, how do I go about accessing the hidden partitions? It has been a long time since I have used DOS, but was also thinking Ranish may be able to do this too. I could use a spare hd to backup the hidden partitions and then re-load them after on the re-formatted hd's. Is this feasible or it is best to try to get all the chipsets drivers from the mfr's and just do a new install totally? I know these hd's are only 4000 rpm, but they will more than suffice for teaching alphabet/ numbers and reading / recognition programs.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions or information

frums