Question : Problem: Boot from external drive Toshiba satellite

I have a Toshiba Satellite P25-S609 that has had the disk wiped and XP Pro installed. The CD rom drive has failed and I need to reinstall the OS. I have tried a USB cd/dvd drive and a PCMCIA cd drive and the laptop will not see either one of them. The on board cd rom will not boot and it will not read a cd/dvd. The laptop will see and read any drive I have attached once the OS has booted up. The unit does not have a floppy drive. The external floppy drive I have does not have a matching port on the laptop.

Any ideas on how to restore this laptop?

Answer : Problem: Boot from external drive Toshiba satellite

Unless you have the 'Booting from USB' option available, then your only real solution would be to replace the failed drive unit. If its not the failed drive, it might be an underlying motherboard problem.