Have:
IBM Thinkpad Type 2640-90U

Yeah, it is old, but want to use it to control an amateur radio transceiver, which doesn't require much sophistication.

Problems are:
1. Bios will not permit system to boot from CD; is on a USB port and is not OEM.
2. Only has an external floppy drive, which appears functional, and will permit
booting from this drive.
3. System will NOT boot from hard drive, is either dead or corrupted, but cannot confirm now; will replace if all else checks out okay.

I have been unable to find a boot-floppy for Linux (or anything else) that will either boot the system from the OEM external floppy drive or permit the USB port to be utilized so that I can run an external CD/DVD drive.

Any help will be appreciated.

I have not tried this particular program myself, it looks like it might help you out.

-->http://www.plop.at/en/home.html

Basically it is a boot manager that does not need BIOS support to boot from a USB CD.

Hope this helps.

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