How to boot windows 7 from external dvd drive

[pace1]

I have mini dell laptop. The laptop was hit with a bad virus it was wiped out so I am trying to reinstall
windows 7 so need to know how to reboot it from a external drive.

 

[blazorthon]

You should be able to plug in a USB DVD drive or if you copy the Windows 7 installation ISO files to a USB flash drive with one of many programs that can do it properly (such as MS's official tool for this), you can plug it in and install Windows 7 from the flash drive (this is also usually a little faster than using a DVD too).

 

[dodger46]

And if you want a step-by-step for the USB stick...
http://johnpapa.net/BootFromUSB