TP760E: How to boot a Linux image from Win95 ?

[Gregor Hoffleit <gregor@hoffleit.de>]

Hi,

I know this is a pretty dumb question, but time is pressing and I just
don't get it:

I bought a used ThinkPad 760E with Win95 installed. The machine has a
slot for either a CD-ROM or a floppy drive. Obviously the floppy drive
is defective (doesn't read disks under Win95 at all), and the BIOS
doesn't support booting from the CD-ROM.

I'd like to install Linux on the machine, but first, I'd like to backup
the partitions.

And, I'm afraid of running in a situation where I'm not able to boot the
machine at all (when CD-ROM and floppy don't work as boot devices, I
don't want to trash the disk as my only boot device).


As a first start, I'm looking for a Linux rescue installation, which
boots directly from the Win95 partition (networking is working on
Win95). The rescue installation should be able to set up the PCMCIA
networking for Linux, so that I can backup the partitions over network.

But, most small Linux distros that might support PCMCIA networking are
shipping as floppy or torito images.  Is there a generic way to boot a
floppy or torito image from a running Win95 system, when there's neither
a boot CD-ROM nor a floppy drive ? Loadlin seems to work only if I have
the disk in separate components (kernel, initrd etc.), but not for a
complete image.

I.e. is there any tool for DOS that's able to boot a floppy image (or
eltorito image) from the DOS filesystem.


I would be glad about any comments regarding that situation. I guess I
just need a pointer in the right direction in order to make my way.

Thanks in advance,

    Gregor