My CD-Rom drive went bad in this system. I have tried two replacement drives, and neither of them worked. I finally took the drive to an authorized repair shop, and they had the same problems. Now I need to be able to boot from an external source, since the bootable CD's I use for diagnostics don't work on the usb drive I bought. So, does anyone know how I can boot my system from a USB drive or external drive connected through the PCMCIA slot? Thank you, meb

The BIOS needs to have Bootable Support of any Devices, have you checked what options the BIOS offers ??

My Toshiba is an A25 I think, set the boot priority so the USB is before the CD or HD. I wrote this down: "Toshiba boot priority is in Toshiba Console...Customizing your computer...Toshiba Hardware Settings...Boot Priority. I installed software for my external USB floppy drive and it boots OK from a floppy in the USB floppy I connected Hope this helps

Tried that first... Actually, I see no specific USB enabler for boot priority order in my bios. I do have network, floppy and (apparently) pcmcia slot bootability, but with a USB 2.0 converter in the pcmcia slot I still can't boot from the external Drive. I'd throw this system away, but it's still pretty useful. Can anyone direct me to an external CD-rom/dvd drive that connects directly through the pcmcia slot? Can anyone direct me to a site that might help me test and fix my CD-Rom drive? (Symptom, noise and won't read CD's or dvd's.) Thanks, Mike B.