Boot to drive or access from DOS

Instead of formating and reloading a HDD to solve a CD_ROM problem, boot to a Windows 98 boot disk (or similar disk with CD support) and try to access the drive from DOS. Or if the BIOS supports it, try to boot to a bootable CD. That would remove the OS from the equation. If the drive still can’t be accessed, you know it’s not an OS problem and can look elsewhere.