boot from floppy image *file*

[David Forrest]

I apologize if this is the wrong place to ask this question:

Is there any reasonable way to boot from a floppy image file stored on the
hard drive?

I have a laptop with a dodgy floppy drive dongle, and I'd really like to
be able to copy some boot disks to the hard drive, (e.g. distribution boot
disks, tom's root boot) and point GRUB at them for rescue booting.

I'm not quite sure how to search for this question properly, since there
are so many things out there which talk of copying a boot disk to a file
or vice versa.

Although it would be nice, it may be impossible, since a boot loader might
pass control off to a floppy image, which in turn would try to read an
actual floppy.  But the El torito thing seems to do something like this.

Thanks you for your time, and again, my apologies for my lack of knowledge
and perhaps showering you with unwanted email.

dave
-- 
 Dave Forrest    (434)924-3954w(111B) (804)642-0662h (804)695-2026p
 address@hidden             http://mug.sys.virginia.edu/~drf5n/