G73sw CD/DVDrw issues

To cut to the chase, my CD-ROM will not work, and I need to do a clean windows install.
Yet, all the procedures I have found for a clean windows install require burning and then booting from a disc, which I of course cannot do. I have no system-recover points, and my backup DVDs are obviously useless.

What are my options?


To be more specific; I had just gotten this laptop back from Asus RMA for unrelated issues, so I was happy to finally have it in my hands, working, and was quickly setting it up and installing some of my software.
I am fairly certain that one of the pieces of software I was installing caused this issue, but that software did not install correctly so the uninstall program was not present, and it did not come up in the 'Programs And Features' list in the control panel. I of course went in and manually deleted the files and folders that were installed for this program, but either it did its damage already, or I could not find all the software that is causing the corruption.

Disks spin up upon insertion but nothing else happens, the drive does not appear under 'My Computer', the icon for the device in the 'Device Manager' has a small warning sign over it, and the device status says "Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware. The driver may be corrupted or missing. (Code 39)"
I have uninstalled the device from the 'Device Manager' and restarted allowing Windows to auto-detect and reinstall it, but once it comes back up it says that it failed to install properly.
I have even gone so far as to find the specific driver (named cdrom.sys appropriately enough), delete it from System32/DRIVERS, and re-download and reinstall it manually.


I have done these things, and no change in symptoms.
It could be that the drive physically went bad in the course of installing new software, but I doubt that. Furthermore, I would like to pursue all free options before I go out and buy a new drive.


I am pretty good at general troubleshooting, but computer issues are not exactly my forte. If anyone has any sources or advice on this, I would be thoroughly appreciative.

 

If you have another laptop with a SATA ODD, try swapping them. To do a clean install without a cd, download this nifty tool: Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool - Free software downloads and software reviews - CNET Download.com. Grab a windows 7 iso, you can get one from the windows section here. Once you have the iso, use the usb/dvd download tool and a 4GB flash drive. You now have a flash drive that will allow you to install windows without a disc.

 

I assume this cannot be done with an external hardrive, huh? I am having a problem finding my appropriately sized flash drive...

 

Never tried with an external drive, maybe someone here has though, however any flash drive over 4GB will do.