Boot from iPod Classic 5G?

Is there a way I can use my iPod as a bootable USB?

Yes, but since you'd need to reformat the drive, you wouldn't be able to use it as an iPod until you restore it. So it's one of the other.

I already backed it up. So how can I use it then? I used USB Image Tool to restore an image to it but it then reboots the iPod back to its OOB state. (Until then Windows sees the drive as unaccessable.)

To restore the iPod back to its original state, just do a restore from iTunes. Use UNetBootin to make a bootable Linux flash drive using your iPod.

I dont want a Linux bootable USB, I want to format it to HFS+ (format OSX uses for iPod anyway) to boot a hackintosh image. Only problems are that Im short my 8 GB USB (lost it), and cant extract the image without puting it on an external drive, which I can only do by erasing the drive completely, and only to a USB.