I would actually use a Windows 98 startup floppy that includes CD support which you can download from http://www.bay-wolf.com/downloads.htm  if you scroll down to the bottom of the page.

Have you tried to run fdisk from the bootable cd? You must first run an fdisk to create a primary partition on your drive to which the OS can be loaded. During the process you may elect to use all 30G for the primary drive or you can partition (split up) the 30 into additional "drives". For instance you can make 10G the primary and two secondary drives each of 10G labled D: and E: respectively, or you can make just a D: drive of 20G, etc. The possabilities are quite numerous, but you can only make two extended partitions beyond the primary. That means you can only have a C, D, and E drive. They are still ALL ON THE ONE HARD DRIVE, but divided into individual partitions. After you run fdisk, and select which partition(s) is/are your primary/extended, then you can restart the computer to install the operating system. It will be at that point that the new hard drive will be formatted to accept the WinMe O/S.

My recommendation, based on a similar experience, is Partion the drive thrice. Make the C: drive your primary and make a D: and E: drive both as logical drives. Use The C: drive for installing O/S, applications, drivers, etc. Use the D: and E: drives for storing your files and data. You needn't worry about converting one of them to a backup partition insomuch as you have the bootable CD and should your HD crash again, you can simply restore the OS from there and no risk losing your data from the D: or E: drives (unless you elect to delete them when you run the fdisk program again).

Hope this helps.