Installing problems: Debian 4.0r0, on LiteON DVD-RW LH-20A1p

["Kevin C. Redden" <kredden@maysvilleky.net>]

Folks: Tried to install Debian 4.0 r0 on my system, and didn't get very 
far. It booted fine, but then after I did this:

language for installing: English
country or region: Unitied States
Keymap: American English

then it tries to detect hardware

Then says:

your installation CD-ROM couldn't be mounted. This probably means that the 
CDROM was not in the drive. If so you can insert it and try again.

If you say 'yes' it just gives a blue screen with a white bar on the bottom 
and sits there.
No, gives you a menu, which then leads to the same thing.

I can ctrl-alt-del out of it.

The drive is a ATAPI CDROM
LiteOn DVD LH-20A1p

This disk works fine on a IBM T22 Thinkpad, and I'm using it there so the 
disk isn't bad. Just can't mount this disk, after it boots.

Any solutions? Or would it be

While I have your ear, I want to install this on an old PATA drive in the 
system and not on the SATA drives (This is purely experimental at the 
moment.) What would I look for when it comes time to accually install?

Thanks!