One option that people have indicated they have used in the past is
to hook the laptop hard drive to a desktop computer and do the install
from there.  Then reconnect the drive to the laptop.

You might also be able to boot from a USB device that at least has
enough of a NetBSD install image to get sysinst running---then
do the rest of the install over a network link.  Or get the whole
installation system off of the USB device (256MB USB keychain
fobs aren't that expensive, and that should be more than enough
space for a complete distribution set).  The problem is that your
laptop might not boot from a USB storage device...

-- 
  "I probably don't know what I'm talking about."  http://www.olib.org/~rkr/