IDE cdrom drive for thin client

Question

I'm doing a project in which my own hardware connects to a computer via RS232. For compactness and power savings, I just bought a new Dell wyse V10L thin client PC.

It may likely have windows on it when it arrives, but I want to replace the contents of the internal flash drive with Linux. I own a bootable linux distro on CD-ROM.

In the Dell wyse motherboard each IDE connector has 44-pins in total. My CD-ROM drive as an IDE connector of 40-pins in total along with a white (molex?) plug in which power can be supplied to the CD-ROM drive.

I searched on Ebay to find a converter, and the best one I could find that "might" be right, are the ones advertised that convert laptop hard drives to PATA IDE hard drives for PC's so that laptop hard drives can be used as if it was a desktop hard drive in a normal desktop PC.

Could I also use such connectors in reverse direction as well? or is there a specialized connector for my purpose that I should opt for? and if so, what would the connector be called?

Also based on research for the thin client, the bios has an option where one can try to boot from a CD-ROM drive.

See: https://www.parkytowers.me.uk/thin/wyse/vx0/Firmware.shtml

So what should I do here?