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Try a new cable or check the pins where the cable plugs into to make sure none are bent over. If your 3 1/2 and cd rom are on the same cable this is a good starting point...

Also go into your computer's BIOS program and check to see if these devices have not been disabled somehow.

Start with a bootable floppy, (the Windows 98 startup disk is a good choice)
see if you can boot from the floppy, and access the CD drive from DOS.

If so, your bios is detecting the devices properly, and the drives work.

What you need to do, is download and install the correct IDE bus driver for your motherboard.

If you need help identifying who made your motherboard, or where to download the drivers, check out either www.motherboards.org
or www.wimsbios.com
Both have tools to assist you in identifying who made your motherboard, or at least what chipset is on the board so that you can download the drivers from the chipset mfg.

Chas

Did they ever work? One response here that suggested booting to a floppy is a good way to make sure it's not just a windows problem.
If you recently installed or just built the system, IDE (hard drive, CDROM) ribbon cables allways go with pin one next to power connector. Pin one on the ribbon cable has the colored stipe. This also needs to be correct on the mother board. Since the hard drive seems to work make sure the CDROM if it isn't connected to the drive's ribbon cable is connected the same way on the mother board. Floppies often don't use the same cable config as hard drives. Floppy drive cable may go either way. If the floppy is connected the wrong way the light on it will allways stay on. When correct the light will just come on for a second or 2 during the boot process. Make sure both ends of the cable are seated and correct and that all the pins (both rows) are in the cable.
The CDROMs ribbon cable is connected the same as a hard drive. If connected to the hard drive it needs to be jumpered as a slave. If connected to another CDROM one needs to be the master and the other a slave. Make sure both ends of the cable are securely connected and installed the correct way. Also check that the power connectors are securely inserted. If the CDROM and floppy are connected on the same (split) power cable try different power connectors if available.
The system BIOS may have the floppy controller and the secondary IDE controller disabled.

Gosh!
Someone here asked aboutthe floppy and CDDROM being connected together. That WOULD be a problem since they have different sized ribbon cables? Since a lot of floppy drives don't have black plastic guide slots around the connector pins I guess it could be possible to connect a hard drive cable to it. If you've done that put your screwdriver away and take a computer hardware class.

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