If you are trying to boot from a CD, having set that option in the BIOS, Windows drivers are neither here nor there.
I have been using and fixing (until they got so cheap it wasn't worth it) optical drives for 10 years. I have definitely had both CD and DVD drives that made clicking noises. These reasons mainly:
1. Bad disk: the read/write laser moves back and forth along a plastic track and if the laser cannot lock on to the "table of contents" section at the start of the disk, or if it did, but later, during a data read it "loses its place" due to dirt or scratches, it will vainly seek back and forth until the firmware timeout expires (or in a bad case it will lock up the OS and you have to press the reset button). The clicking you hear is the laser carrier hitting the ends of the track.
2. Dried up lube on the aforementioned track. When the CD-ROM drive is made, a glob of silicone lube is smeared along the track. With time this gets carried along to the ends of the track where it accumulates in ridges mixed up with dirt and dust. This can limit the travel of the laser carrier and prevent it from locking on to the disk properly. This can happen after about 5 to 7 years of use, or a few years of storage.
3. Bad read sensor or dirty lens. The drive gets no reflected signal from the disk and whacks the read head back and forth vainly like situation (1) above.
4. Bad read laser or dirty lens ditto.
I would verify that the disk or disks work in another computer, that is, at least can be read in Windows Explorer without undue hesitation and without too many clicks and whirrs.
new CD-ROM drives are 15 US dollars from Tiger Direct. CD Rewriter drives are 20 US dollars.
