dmesg seems to see the device:
[felboe@HAL9000 ~]$ dmesg | grep "hdc"
ide1: BM-DMA at 0x1868-0x186f, BIOS settings: hdc:DMA, hdd:pio
hdc: TOSHIBA DVD-ROM SD-C2302, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
hdc: ATAPI 24X DVD-ROM drive, 128kB Cache, UDMA(33)
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