[ale] Remote boot/install on old notebook, no floppy/CD/ethernet?

[mute wonder]

Finally!  I got the notebook hard drive in an external USB enclosure and am
attempting to install something usable on it while it's attached to another
computer.

I suppose it's safe to install anything suitable for the notebook's specs,
then at the *First Reboot* stage, just transfer the hdd back to the notebook
and boot it.  That's when it would begin hardware detection and
configuration.  But wouldn't it need a proper bootloader in the MBR?  I
can't say during the distro install, "install grub to MBR," that would mess
up the MBR for the perfectly fine, operable, no-need-touch-me computer.
Installing grub to root's partition would still require some instruction
from a  BIOS-acknowledged bootable device--floppy (don't have), cdrom (don't
have), internal hard drive.

 I'm not sure I understand the boot floppy copying. I would need to create a
1.44 MB partition on a hard drive and copy a boot floppy image to it, that
the computer would recognize automagically as a boot floppy and use to boot
the installed operating system or Live-cd image on another partition of the
hard drive?

I'm newly leery of a network install.  No wired network ports, but a PC Card
port that might work with that 2Wire wireless ethernet pc card that I have.
Yet, I haven't found a small distro that used my card properly (as tested on
another old laptop of different make and model and specs).

Thank you all.  I'm still working on it.
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