Drives won't work

Help--Just bought this laptop and don't know anything about Linux. Neither of my drives will work. The floppy drive or the CD/DVD. Is there a simple program to download that will allow me to mount and unmount the discs? I searched and found some info about GFloppy but can't find where to download it. I do not know how to get to the root where I can type anything either. Thanks in advance. Michele

I have:
Laptop HP xn9010-P6448WA
Linux 2.6.35-23
Ubuntu 10.10
Gnome 2.32.0
I do not have windows on this Linux laptop and the floppy and CD-R I am trying to get to work in the Linux laptop works in my computer with windows XP-Home.