well, the boot disk I made via Astro’s idea did the trick all right. I formatted my HD, and installed Windows 98 (second edition) and the installation went without a hitch.
However, windows refuses to see my modem. And the only driver it’ll let me use for my monitor is standard VGA, and won’t let me use more than 16 colors and won’t give me a bigger res than 600x400 (or whatever it is).
I’ll probably get around to looking for drivers on the modem & monitors manufacturer’s web sites, i dunno when tho. My computer’s just kind of existing right now until I get it restored (i’m at school right now). Thanks for your help, everybody!