Let's start from the beginning.
Installed Windows ME (tick)
It's loaded (tick?)
[at this point you can safely assume your mass storage device s working
)
You've gone to START/SETTINGS/CONTROL PANEL/SYSTEM and MASS STORAGE CONTROLLER is showing a yellow question mark ?
Is the Soundblaster PCI card doing the same?
The CD writer not being detected doesn't surprise me because CDR's and DVD drive units are only detected as CD's. Saying this that doesn't mean to say when you've loaded the correct driver for your unit it will correctly self detect.