[nmglug] CD-Rom wheredit go

[a_kaluta]

Dear Club Members;
I went to load a cd-disk from Sam.
It seems /cdrom , /dev/hdc  are no such file or directory.
Kernal.log, says hdc: stat error:status=0x00 {}
ide failed optcd was : unknown.
README not very encouraging i.e try kernal 2.4.
I do not find the necessary clues in P. Sheers book.
nor in "How Linux Works".
For the initiated, I suspect the solution is obvious.
Any specifically applacable, tantalizing clues out there, anyone answering 
trivial questions today?  Anthony Kaluta