And or, "I guess the Fat lady has indeed sung."
Previously, on Ubuntu_users:
http://community.livejournal.com/ubuntu_users/290160.html#comments Thinking there may be a problem that could be fixed with a good ol' reformatting using the original Windows 98 disk, before I scrap the whole thing and put on good ol' Xubuntu, I attempted to reinstall Windows 98. Got to the reboot before reformatting, and it threw an error. I am now almost positive that this problem is beyond my ken.
Somehow, not clear how, mind you, the harddrive is completely unformatable (Is that even a word?) due to gods know what.
Which is odd, since I can still use the Xubuntu live CD to access everything ON the harddrive.
Unless this is something very familiar that you have dealt with in the past, I think I officially have a harddrive that I get to take apart and learn how it works.