Acer Aspire won't boot from DVD/CD or USB key

[techman41973]

A friend is asking for help with his 3-year old Acer Aspire.
In general, it works fine, boots to Windows Vista. However, he wants to wipe the machine and install Windows 7. When he puts the Windows 7 disc in the integrated optical drive and reboots, the machine will not boot from the optical drive/Windows 7 disc. It just hangs. The optical drive works fine inside Windows Vista - plays audio discs and allows access to files on data discs.
I also tried copying the files from the Windows 7 disc to a USB key and tried a boot from USB key. The machine boots, but goes right to Windows Vista - apparently ignoring the USB key.
I went into the BIOS and confirmed the boot order. The bios is set to boot from the optical drive and USB key before the hard drive.
I don't know what I else I can try to fix this issue.
Thanks

[Jack]

Just a note: Directly copying the files from the CD will not copy the boot sector, therefore not booting. Try using the boot menu from the CD, it is the key, ex. F12 that allows you to select the specific boot device for that boot.