I have a Panasonic Toughbook CF-28 Mk III P3 1Ghz 512Mb Ram , I have installed a brand new DVD rom Drive in the MP Bay it reconises in bios also reads upon first post however, will not boot from any os cd or dvd it just says "Operating System Not Found" even if there was a way to boot off a usb drive i could get it done however I do not belive the bios will boot off usb

"MP" stands for Multimedia Pocket.

In other words the optical drive or the CD-ROM Drive.

If there is no CD-ROM on your CF-30, this is normal
because when these units were brand-new, the CD-ROM
drive was an optional unit costing hundreds of dollars.

Good Luck.

Regards from Richard
Authorized Panasonic Canada Dealer in Montreal.

On most Panasonic Toughbook models, when you turn on the power and immediately press the "Esc" key, then a new startup menu will be shown.

Simply choose "CD-ROM Drive" as the boot device and make sure that you have previously inserted a CD-ROM in the drive and then the Panasonic Toughbook should startup or "boot" from the cdrom
instead of from the internal hard disk drive.

I have attached a photo

Good Luck and Regards from:
Richard, Montreal Based Panasonic Canada Authorized Toughbook Dealer since 1989

As long as it is a plug&play drive it should work just fine. It's hard to install a USB CD/DVD Drive that isn't plug&play.

there is an xp usb flash disc version.
try that
hope it helps

Open Device Manager, uninstall the CD/DVD media drivers, scan for new hardware, and let it reinstall the drivers automatically. If it does not begin installing the drivers automatically, or if the drivers fail to install properly the CD/DVD media device might be physically improperly installed, or otherwise faulty.

The cd rom drive on the CF-29 is a modular, removable drive.
When you open the left side cover, the cover has a small square symbol which is "MP". MP stands for Multimedia Pocket which is what Panasonic calls the drive bay where is the cd rom drive is installed. On the bottom of the Toughbook is a sliding cover which has a left arrow sysmbol <MP RELEASE which stands for Multimedia Pocket Release. If you slide this cover completely to the right side and the left side cover is open, then you will see a new switch which you push to the left side. This will release whatever drive is in the multimedia pocket and this can be replaced by a CDRW/DVD Drive. The approx. cost of the drive should be maximum $50 for a used drive plus taxes and shipping. At least this is how much we charge for a CDRW/DVD Drive.

Good Luck.
Richard/Montreal Based Panasonic Canada Authorized Toughbook Dealer since 1989

Please clean the cd lens.

download the K-Lite Mega codec pack from http://www.codecguide.com/download_k-lite_codec_pack_full.htm It can play almost anything.

Your cd/dvd drive doesn't have to be bootable to install Windows XP. Did you encounter a problem?

i need help i have a panasonic cf-27 toughbook with a usb cd drive and usb floppy drive ive tried both seperate and with a multi usb connector to boot both but it doesnt find them can anyone help me?