debian cannot find cdrom (version II)

[Ben Southwood <ben@ausipos.com>]

I am attempting to install debian on my laptop (using woody stable & bf2.4).
I have included below all of the information I can think of that may be relevant:
I have booted the laptop using cdrom, initial kernel compilaton of kernel runs smoothly, installing from cdrom.
after initial install of kernel, and first reboot my laptop can no longer find the cdrom. 
this occurs just after debian asks if I wish to run Tasksel & Deselect for install of additional packages. I select cdrom as my source for packages and on next page debian returns the message that /dev/cdrom cannot be found.
I have checked fstab and settings appear correct, ie:
/dev/cdrom	/cdrom
I have checked links to /dev/cdrom and this appears to be correctly linked to /dev/hdc.
on boot /dev/hdc appears as my cdrom.
if I run lsmod no modules for the cdrom appear (in redhat it returns modules cdrom and ide-cd)
if I run modprobe cdrom, no module is found, this also happens with modprobe ide-cd.
I can install packages via internet, however as I have only a dial up connection and low download allocation this is not really an option.
Both Redhat & Slackware have installed without a problem, I really do wish to have debian on my system though, as it appears to have the best form of updating available...
This is all the information I can think of to provide, if any more detail is needed let me know what you need & I will attempt to provide it.

Cheers,

Ben.