Boot error: kernel panic

[Larry Crisp <Lawrence.L.Crisp-1@tc.umn.edu> (Lawrence Crisp)]

One of my coworkers here at work installed Redhat as a dual boot with
win98 on a PII that wasn't being used for much.  It has been a "mess
around with" install, so I do not know what has been done with it, or even
that it ever booted at all.  I tried booting it earlier today, and it
stopped with the lines:

isofs_read_super: bread failed, dev=03:06, iso_blknum=16, block=32
kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 03:06

Now, I realize that Linux is unable to access the superblock (or
something) and cannot mount the root drive, but what I do not know is what
might have caused this and how it can be fixed.  Anyone have any thoughts
or suggestions?

Thanks,
  --Larry