Hi  Jregester, Regret the situation. Since there is no DVD drive in this model, you need to arrange for an external DVD drive. We have tested this system with only Windows 7 for which the drivers are available in our support website. Hence I recommend you to purchase the Windows 7 Operating system. It can be purchased online. There are no windows 8 drivers for this model. Reach out if you have any further query.
I have a Dell Inspiron 1122 that I got 3 years ago while I was working in China. I bought it specifying that I wanted English windows. When it got delivered it had Chinese Windows 7 and I sent it back and they returned it using English. That was fine until it had a boot problem. I did not have any data on it so I reinstalled Windows from the hard disk, but it came back as Chinese. All attempts to change it back to English have failed (I have tried a lot to get it to English again). I guess I can  1) go buy an English windows 7 now that I am back in the US 2) upgrade to Windows 8?? I can't get it to connect to the internet, but the USB does seem to work. I guess I could get a CD player to install Windows. Any suggestions? 
Options for Troubled Laptop