Now I did a few things prior to this situation so I will try to explain the events as they unfolded(by memory).
My own machine(1) "Azura" has a Creative 36x cd reader in a Pentium ll machine with "XP" o.s.
From my brother -- Was given a Dell machine (2) with Win98 and a Benq cd burner. Machine (2) is a Pentium lll but is slower 550Mhz than the Pll(1.something Ghz)
( but that is a question for another day)
Everything worked on both machines as they were.
My brother suggested swapping the CD units so I would have the newer burner in machine (1) He had loaded into machine (2) with a "Nero" disc.
Okay, me the mechanic that I am, pulled out the drives and swapped them (physically) and have not used either of them since.
Now, I want to put XP in (2) machine overwriting win98. This is when I noted it could not see the CD drive.
>this is slightly more complicated than what I am saying because first off when starting Win98 it asked for a password otherwise it would not let me into the desktop when I left it blank and hit the enter button.
I phoned my bros and he could not remember the password. Suggested one or two name tries which I tried a few times with no success. He'll call me.
I tried going into "Safe Mode" which it did but said it could not read the CD drive in safe mode anyways --besides that I could not find it in "My computer". Okay, no help there.
I restarted the computer and pressed F2 for setup(as I noted F8 was not the same thing as on XP).
So I looked in there and possibly fiddled around as I did not see anything for CD drive(but I think everything is as it was)
So with computer 1 I searched the net to find passwords and read about pulling the battery out for half an hour and that should wipe passwords out to default.
I also checked in DOS for pwl. file - found it and nothing there to access it.
So, I pulled the battery out last night and put it back in this morning. Again the only difference is when it came up to entering the password I hit cancel instead of the enter button. Hitting the enter button just says "incorrect password".
Okay Windows98 runs normally. The Creative disc drive lites up and then shuts off as there is nothing in the drive. When I put a disc in the drive such as Win98 again it lights up and shuts off. Doesn't talk to me about what it sees.
And in "My Computer" or the control panel there is no CD drive. Neither is it found in "DOS".
"So" out came the Creative CD rom and in went a third CD player(no name brand)
for argument sake.(which I knew worked as well) It light up and off as the Creative CD player. - That is when it occurred to me I need a "driver" which I didn't have right at hand. I forgot it needed a driver and I did not have one for it right at hand. Nor was a download of 7.1 Mb onto 3.5 floppies considered(as only one machine is on the net)
"So" out came the "no-name brand" and I took out the Benq CD burner out of the (1) computer and put it back in the Dell (2) hoping it would see its own.
Oh, I forgot to mention I was in system properties/device manager/cd rom properties and deleted Benq somewhere along the way while that CD player was not in the machine(but did not put in any other driver)
So, as it stands now, I have the original Benq cd reader in there and the Nero disc on hand.
How do I get it to read the CD drive?
"Working on computers should be classified as cruel and unusual punishment"
I think I am going to stick with brain transplant surgery.
:con fused:
hardware
prices 
