Before we get started, make sure that you have a valid burned iso image. This will save a lot of headaches at this point of the process. For windows, I use Nero to burn iso images. If you prefer, K3b or Arson are good choices of Linux burning packages. Either way, burn your iso image on a CD-R, not a CDRW. Also, choose a low burning speed, 8X or under. Trust me on this one. It is worth the patience of a slow cd burn.
The next step is to assure that your bios is set correctly to as the first boot device. While you are in there, and if your bios supports it, choose floppy as the first boot device, CDROM as the second and your hard drive as the third boot device. Otherwise, you will have to get back into your bios later on and set the floppy as the first boot choice. Make sure that your burned cd is in the drive and save your changes, allowing the system to boot. Is your zip disk still in it's drive? Good.
Allow the cd to start the installation process, no special commands are needed at the boot prompt, as the cd starts. Choose the appropriate settings for your hardware, such as the keyboard, and so on.
As the install proceeds, allow the base packages to be installed into the system memory. Again, this cd has most of the kernel modules already included in the kernel that you will need, including recognition of the zip drive. However, if you have an unusual NIC card, you will need to load the module for it. In my system, I have a via based onboard NIC card, so I loaded the module via-rhine and proceeded with the install.
Hopefully all has gone well so far. If the base packages fail to install load, try again and check the validity of the iso burned image, if necessary. Skip the menu choice of partitioning your hard drive and choose to initialize an already partitioned disk. You should see your sda1 drive listed as a choice. Go ahead and pick this option and mount it as root (/). Ditto on the swap partition. Initialize the already partitioned swap partition, sda2, and proceed with the rest of the installation.
Because we want a minimum install, I elected to forgo taskel and keep it simple. We will use apt-get later on to install our basic utilities, including X.
Near the end of the install process, Debian asks you about installing Lilo. Skip this section and alternately choose to create a floppy boot disk. Make sure the floppy disk is inserted in the drive and allow the boot disk to be made. I tried several methods of installing Lilo on the Zip disk, all failed. This included nmking a small initial partiton on the Zip disk for boot. Nada. My bios does recognize Zip 100 as a boot option, but apparently, not for the 250 mb disk size. If you are adventurous and find a way to do this, let me know. But, be warned, you can trash your existing bootloader on the hard drive if you are not careful.
Now that you have a minimal system on the Zip disk, choose to reboot the system. Debian will guide you though the post install phase by asking several questions about how you want your system set up. I created both a root account password and user account, but since this is a utility disk that will not be used by anyone else, or on the web, a user account is optional. Hopefully you have set your system up with a network connection, DHCP loaded at boot and some apt sources. If you also have a set of debian CD's, then you can add these to apt to install some basic utilities. I was not worried about security updates, as this is a utility disk only. It's your call, but not doing so will save disk space. We are done with the basic setup of the system Congats!
At this point, what you install in terms of utilities is up to you. Since you only have a basic install available to you, the command line is your friend. Really. I used the command df to periodically check the amount of space that I had available on my new Zip system before choosing to install additional utilities and packages. Anyway, here are some basic utilities that I installed and fine useful.
Now, if you want to go a little further, you can install a graphical interface to your system. I decided to install the following.
One final word of advice. To save disk space, you can periodically view the /var/cache/apt/archives directory. You will see a list of all the packages that you have installed via the net, from your apt sources. As you go along, you can delete these package files to save disk space. just be careful not to accidentely delete your /partial directory, or apt will break!
Well, that about does it. You have probably spent most of your Zip disk space by now, but have a fully functional Zip disk Linux utility available for your use. Feel free to let me know how you make out and any suggestions or solutions that you find.