Disabling Compaq's System_Save partition

Hello,

I offered to fix-up my sister's Presario 1245 laptop (Windows 98
installed), and discovered Compaq's odd D: drive partition, titled
"System_Save", which in addition to stealing space from C:, seems to
get copies of everything removed from the Recycle Bin. (I noticed this
because emptying the Recycle Bin always generates a message that D: is
full!) The problem is that

1) I don't have any Windows 98 or Compaq CD's to reinstall the OS from
scratch, and
2) I can't figure out what's sending everything to D:, so I can disable
it! I've disabled everything obvious from the startup files and the
Registry, including all the non-touchpad-related Compaq crap, but this
issue continues. It's as if they hacked a .dll or added some boot code
to do their dirty work. :-(

I'd like to remove D: completely, and a Google Groups search indicates
that its only use is in combination with Compaq's Restore CD, so this
is perfectly do-able. I've resigned to fixing the problem in-place,
but am concerned the laptop will still continue trying to access D: and
could make things worse if I don't kill this "System_Save" process
first. Any ideas?

Many thanks,

Todd