Hello Ian,
If the PowerBook does not contain an operating system, you would need at least a startup floppy to begin with. The Disk Tools PPC
here works with a PB 5300 series computer. The disk image in the download is of the NDIF type, which typically requires a Mac with a built-in floppy drive and
Disk Copy 6.3.3 (the Make a Floppy command under the Utilities menu) running under Mac OS 9 or earlier. Do you have a friend with a suitable Macintosh? If necessary, you could perhaps contact a
local user group for assistance.
Once you have a bootable Disk Tools floppy, it is possible to reformat the internal hard disk, if you so wish. Please note that only HFS = Standard can be used with System 7.5.3 (not HFS+ = Extended). A temporary operating system can often be obtained by dragging the system folder of a startup floppy to the empty hard disk (this will free the floppy drive for subsequent transfers).
The individual System 7.5.3 files (see above) can be drag-copied to 1.44 MB diskettes (the Disk Copy application is not used in this case). The idea is to transfer all twenty (International English) files to the PB 5300 hard disk. Once decoded, the (one .smi and nineteen .part) files are to be placed in a common folder. When one double-clicks on the first file (.smi), the entire large image will mount. The installer will be found in the mounted image.
Another option for the transfer of the twenty 7.5.3 files is to use a CompactFlash card in a PC Card adapter for CF (one example
here).
Jan