CD/DVD drive not showing up in Windows

Right at the start of my Windows 7 install, I keep getting hit with this message:

Load Driver

A required CD/DVD drive device driver is missing. If you have a driver floppy disk, CD, DVD, or USB flash drive, please insert it now.

Note: If the Windows installation media is in the CD/DVD drive, you can safely remove it for this step"..

I’ve tried everything under the sun—swapping USB sticks between 2.0 and 3.0 ports, even trying an external DVD drive—but nothing works. When that window pops up, it gives me a "browse" option, but it won't recognize the USB or the external drive; all I can see is the boot x:
I've messed with the BIOS settings too, but I'm still stuck in the same spot. My motherboard is an MSI B150M MORTAR. Anyone actually know how to fix this? A buddy told me Windows 7 won't work because I'm running an Intel Skylake processor, though I'm not sure if that's the culprit. He just gave up and installed Windows 10 instead. Help me out here if you know anything. 🤔

Man, you’re sitting on a motherboard that most of us can only dream of having 😁 Tell your buddy to quit messing around with you—just head up there and throw Windows XP on it if that's what it takes 😁

I don't really have the energy to walk you through the entire installation process right now, so I'll just drop a link where everything is laid out clearly for you: KLIK. Regarding those drivers, double-check that your DVD drive isn't tucked away inside some RAID configuration (I saw that happen a lot back in the day), which might be why it's hunting for an extra driver. Honestly, I'm just speculating here since I don't have the specifics on your BIOS settings, but that feels like the likely culprit.

I'm sure someone with more mileage under their belt will chime in with a "magic bullet" solution soon enough.

Hopefully, this at least gives you a starting point. 🙂