Laptop External CD ROM Bootup

[AreaOneZero]

I recently bought a laptop (Ebay) that came with no cd drive ( floppy only).Ive looked everywhere for the appropriate internal drive but couldnt find it.My question is , can I buy an external CD Rom with PCMCIA connect and be able to boot from that drive and install the OS?

 

[shan]

I know my toshiba has the ability to select what to try to boot off of when it first starts up by hitting F-12, and I can choose from net/cd/floppy/pcmcia I don't know if the manufactuer has something like that, but if not, you might be able to go into the bios and set it up to boot from the pcmcia

 

[AreaOneZero]

Ive looked and it has the option.I can do it all with a PC but for some reason this first laptop of mine seems alien and I just didnt know.