Panasonic CF-M34 upgrade

Question

These laptops are police surplus and so the hard drive was removed.  two are w/o password and one has a BIOS password.  I understand that the password can be reset by removing the CMOS battery.  My problem is in installing a new hard drive and software.  The system does not acknowledge the new hard drive or respond to my attempts to load software (Windows XP) with a USB connected CD-ROM drive.
It would be helpful if you have experience with Toughbooks, since this model comes w/ a floppy drive but w/o a  disk drive.

Your efforts to help are very much appreciated.  I just hope that you enjoy a real challenge.