New
#41
Im sorry & Perhaps I missed the post but ...
Was it ever determined if the bios sees the CD/DVD drive? or if it simply missing inside Windows?
If the bios sees the drive, you should be able to boot from a disc without any problems (even the Win7 one)
In the bios, in the section Standard CMOS features should list all devices the bios sees.
It may not look exactly the same, but will be somewhat similar..