how do i make it so i can use my cdr drive in debian woody?? when i run "cdrecord -scanbus" i get:
debian:/dev# cdrecord -scanbus
Cdrecord 1.10 (i686-pc-linux-gnu) Copyright (C) 1995-2001 Jörg Schilling
cdrecord: No such file or directory. Cannot open SCSI driver.
cdrecord: For possible targets try 'cdrecord -scanbus'. Make sure you are root

ive read that u need to enable the ide-scsi driver module but im not exactly sure how to do this and also i need to be able to both read and write from the drive cause i only have one. does anyone know how to do this?

You might need to recompile your kernel. Go to your kernel sources and do 'make menuconfig'. There you should enable SCSI support and SCSI emulation support (for example as modules). Afterwards recompile, with 'make modules' and 'make modules_install'.

HTH

Try this out:

IDE-SCSI CDR HOWTO

HTH