Use this to make a bootdisk, not by copying stuff yourself:
http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm
Personally I'd use the Windows 98 SE OEM one, but that's just me. When you boot up, run fdisk and it'll walk you through it.
Honestly though, you need to repartition/format... why? To install an OS I'd assume, most likely something like Windows XP? Or most others for that matter... Most of the OS installers allow you to partition/format right in them so really the bootdisk might be a unnecessary waste of time.
Also, when you read about repartitioning can "destroy the drive" that doesn't really mean physicall ruin it. Simply that when you delete a partition, all of the data that was on it is 'basically' gone. So if you accidently screw up a partition, you will "destroy the data" in a sense, not the physical drive. Good luck!