Windows 7: Problem with install from external optical

Am stuck again with a laptop that the optical drive is dead beyond help (solid shut) and I have wiped the drive and am trying to install 7 to replace the Vista that my work mate had on the machine and just wasn't booting at all.

I ran drive scans, chkdsk (froze) and think probably the drive was so disrupted / corrupted with the kids stuff or just going to the happy hunting grounds.

Anyway so I have given it a try and hooked up an external optical via USB as it will be some time before I can get a replacement optical but it just will not boot to anything.

The only boot options I have are HDD - CD/DVD - FDD - USB memory - LAN.

I tried CD, USB memory (in hope) and FDD (again in hope) but all I get is a black screen with that PXE message and the spinning stick repeating over and over.

Can anyone offer me suggestion please?

EDIT:- I should've read your post properly... ignore what i've just written down, sorry.

Oh wait, you meant you switched the bios options around hoping one of them would pick up the external USB optical disc..

In that case, why don't you try the USB stick method for reinstalling Windows?

Yep solar that is just what I did when I found Brinks tut on installing form a USB stick and wished I had been familiar with that method a long time ago as it was so quick.

Now the heavens open up and the updates flood in

Mind you I am wondering what is going to happen as on the TV news this am they mentioned something about the FBI shutting down a lot of the net because of some DNS malware?