Debian Installer and USB hard drive

[Brian M Dube <brian.dube@gmail.com>]

Hello,

>From the Debian Installer FAQ:
---
And you can also use d-i to boot your system to chroot into your
installation and execute your boot-loader (grub, lilo, yaboot, ...) if
you cannot boot from hard disk any more.
---

I have a Debian testing installation with a failing hard drive. Before
I replace it with another internal IDE drive, I'm looking into USB
storage. I'm not able to boot from USB and I don't want to make a new
boot CD for every kernel recompilation. Does the above quote from the
FAQ mean that I could use the netinst CD to boot whatever kernel I
have configured on the USB medium? If so, would I need an internal
hard drive at all?

Thank you,
Brian Dube