Help! My CL56 won't boot from CD!

My Windows installation is on it's last gasp of air and I need to reinstall it. The problem is, my CL56 refuses to acknowledge that my CD drive exists until Windows is loaded. As you are probably aware, you can't format the hard drive and install Windows FROM Windows. During the boot process, I press F2 to go to the setup thing, and it says my BIOS is 1.40.T1 or something like that. It also says "ATAPI NONE" which I think means "No CD drive detected: Fark you, loser!" I spent every last cent to my name on this computer, so losing it would quite literally be the end of the world for me. I'm completely out of ideas. I don't know if there is such a thing as an external CD drive with legacy USB support, and while knowing where I can find one would be nice, but do me no good as I'm completely penniless. What I need from all you nice people is a solution to make my CD drive recognized from the boot screen, not just Windows. I know it was nothing that I did to make it not recognize the drive, as it has always been this way since I got it. Perhaps the place I bought it from (Microexpress as the Microexpress CL5620) disabled booting from CD, which would really suck. If that's the case, is there a way around it? I don't think it's a problem with my Windows CD either, because I also have a Linux CD (Ubuntu 5.04) which my family's desktop computer boots from fine, but of course not my precious personal CL56. I know I'm rambling, but I'm trying to provide as much information as possible. I know that the CL56 has two options for drives, the CD drive and the DVD+-RW drive. Mine is the DVD+-RW just so you know. My CL56's specs include a 2 GHz Pentium M, a/b/g WiFi, 1GB RAM (2x512), and 60GB 7200RPM hard drive. I am running Windows XP Professional SP2. If any more information is required to help me just ask! If any of you could solve my problem I would be more grateful than you can possibly imagine. Thank you for your time.

Yes I have. If it was that easy, I wouldn't be here.....