When a PC only boots from the hard drive

[CaptainSarcastic]

Could you temporarily swap in a CD drive from another machine?

I'd second Old-Polack's advice, and would also suggest playing with the jumper settings on the off-chance that even if they seem right and the optical drive works once booted to an OS that the cabling/jumpering is off when it comes to boot-time recognition.

Assuming you have another computer and/or parts around I'd try swapping the IDE cable, checking the jumper settings, and trying another optical drive altogether if possible.

[Rudge]

My past experience has shown that, on rare occasions, certain brands of media don't get along with certain brands of hardware.

In addition, I have a PC with a CDROM/DVD player that will not load the OS from a CD. I have to use a DVD. (I don't know why)

I am just stating facts and spewing a few ideas worth trying out.

Change the media type/brand and see if that makes any difference.  

I wish you the best of luck.  

[daklander]

Thanks to all for the suggestions so far. It may be a day or two before I can get back on the project so please don't think I'm ignoring you or your suggestions.

Bill

[horusfalcon]

While you're experimenting...

Try removing all else from the IDE string to which the optical drive is connected.  Plug the optical drive in to the last connector on the ribbon, and set its jumper block for "Master - No Slave" (or just "Master" if that option is not available).

(Wasn't sure whether or not this had been tried already...)

Might help eliminate a bad device on the chain with your optical drive.

Just a thought...

Later On,
D

[DeBaas]

If the machine still can play the existing Windows, you can install the PLOP bootloader on your HDD.
Then it's possible to load an USB stick from boot.