Bootcamp with two internal drives

I replaced the optical drive in my MacBook Pro (5,3) with a Solid State Drive.

I would like to bootcamp partition the SSD to use OS X and Windows 7,

Bootcamp assistant v.4 tells me I must use an optical drive to install Windows.

So I tried it with an external optical drive, which the sytem recognizes, I can

boot from the external drive but Boot Camp does not recognize the drive. I have also

tried disconnecting the HDD, tried installing from flash drive and even put Snow

Leopard on the HDD so that I could use Bootcamp Asst v.3. Nothing works.

I have Windows versions from XP to Window 8. I have OS X from Leopard

through Mountain Lion. I have tried various combinations but still am unable

to get Boot Camp Assistant to do what I would like it to.

Anyone had any success with this setup?