ThinkPad 570 disc not detected

[Edmund GRIMLEY EVANS <edmundo@rano.org>]

I'm trying to install on an IBM ThinkPad 570 with the floppy images
from /debian/dists/sarge/main/installer-i386/20040430/images/floppy
but the disc seems to be invisible: /proc/ide only contains drivers,
there's no /dev/hda, etc.

Any advice for me?

The bit of the installer where it's telling you to partition your
discs is a bit confusing in this case, when there aren't any discs.
You might want to consider not offering to partition them when there
aren't any.

The machine boots into Windows 98, presumably using some kind of disc,
so the hardware does exist.