If you decide to keep at least 2 partitions, you can set Win98 up to keep the "My Documents" and "Desktop" folders on another drive.
Even better, assuming the 4 partitions are the same size and that the PC can manage 1 partition twice as large as the ones have now, you could do like this:
1) Leave the operating system and applications on the 1st one.
2) Leave one partition as large as the first one at the END of the drive.
3) Make ONE large data partiton in the middle out of the two current ones.
4) Use X-teq X-setup to tell Windows to put all the data folders (My Documents, Desktop, Application Data, My Pictures, My Music etc.) on the big, middle partition. The files can then be copied by hand.
5) Copy all the files from the first partition to the last. This will give you a backup of Windows for the day it messes itself up. You can't do so in Windows (it won't copy open system files) but Norton Ghost or any Linux rescue floppy or live CD can do that (time to learn a bit of Linux to service Windows, instead of spending money on apps you can do without)
This way, no matter how messed up Windows becomes, there will be a copy of it on the third drive.
If you later install more software, polish it up further, and are satisfied it's a good install, you can make it a milestone to remember, and copy it all onto the 3rd drive.
Highly recommended for moms!
As an aside, yes, do backups, but once you get the hang of it, hacking up partitions is both great fun and not very dangerous.
My favorite tools are free:
- Ranish Partition Manager: fits into a DOS boot floppy, nice table with info on partitions, very good primer on partitioning on the website
- The various fdisk / cfdisk in Linux: more brutal and simple, can prep a disk for the most outlandish operating systems
- Partition Resizer: another DOS application, simple, as far as I remember it's capable of moving and resizing partitions without destroying the data.
I hope it helps.
Filippo / spamhog
Computer Victim (as in "fashion victim"

- Milan, North Poldavia -
40% WinME, 40% Linux (Debian, Libranet, Vector, Lycoris), 20% Win98, trace amounts of Win2k, xBSD, QNX