computer crash

i'm in need of some major help here although i feel none can really be given, thanks!

one of the computer's in my home has done this before, that is come up to the windows desktop screen and have the Windows 98 Registration box up

that time..i had to get an entire new harddrive after copying the files from DOS or risk losing everything by reinstalling windows

this time..i think i made a gross error, the old harddrive had some problems, i think it was a virus...and without thinking i immediately contaminated the new harddrive by copying the old one to the new space, i thought running some programs would do the trick but apparently not

the computer has become very slow..so i ran registry mechanic, came up with a few problems it fixed (after 2 and a half days of scanning nonstop), after turning off the computer and rebooting everything seemed fine, i used it as normal

i decided to run a scan for viruses...TrendMicro found one in a WINDOWS file....and it quarantined it...not thinking (me that is) i deleted the file so as to rid the computer of the virus once and for all, the file could not be cleaned by trendmicro so it quarantined it and i did not think to use my norton cd to try and clean it..........after shutting down and rebooting....the screen that can bring horror to anyone who knows what it is to have a computer loaded with important files, especially for your business, came up

and i remember what to do....but i'm wondering if there is any way around this...because this is gonna ask for a LOT of disks as you cannot burn the files to cd from dos.....do my new harddrive and old harddrive have to be scrapped?....will these files still have problems if i load them to a new third harddrive (granted that i copy them)?...should i just get a pentium IV and throw away this pentium II?

I suggest getting the Pentium 4 and Windows XP. But you can choose to use your old drives as spare drives for storage.

if you have a spare drive, install windows on it then connect your other drive as a slave drive so you can then copy the data on it to the new drive.

If You Have Another Computer In The House You Can Connect The Drives
To It. Then Boot In to Windows And Copy The Files To The Running Computer
Through Windows. Tip "As This Is Happenning Make Sure You Have An
Updated Virus Scanner In Real Time Scan Mode To Prevent Infecting The
Running Machine".
Once You Have Done This Put Both Harddrives Back In To The Problemmed
Computer. Set Them Both On The Same IDE Cable One As Slave And One
As Master. This Can Be Changed By A Pin Set Located On The Back
Of The Harddrives. Note: If Both Are Set To Cable Select You May
Not Have To Change It. Now You Will Need A Copy Of Power Max.
You Can Get It From The Maxtor Website. It Is A Program That Makes
A Bootable Floppy With Modern Low Level Format Software In It.
In The Problemmed Computer Boot Of Of The Power Max Floppy.
Once You Get To The Option Screen Select The First Drive The Select
The Write Zero's To Drive "Low Level Format". It May Take Some
Time. When It Is Done Repeat The Same Process On The Second
Drive. This Will Prevent Any Virus From Coming Back To Haunt You.
Now With A Win98se Boot Disk Or Installation CD Boot To Dos
And Run Fdisk. Creat A Primary Dos Partition. Now Change Current
Fixed Disk And Do The Same Thing. When This Is Done Restart The
Computer Booting Again Off Of The 98 Boot Disk. Now Format
Both Drives And Install Windows To Your C: Drive And
Save Any Important Information On The D: Drive Compressed By
Winzip, Winrar, Or Winuha"Free". So That None Of Your Important Files
Can Be Infected With A Virus. I Hope Some Of This Helps You.