Having some SERIOUS problems accessing CWM. Help!

Hi! I am new to modifying phones, but am relatively proficient with computer hardware and software. I was hoping someone in the community would be able to help me resolve an issue with my Droid Charge. I will be as concise and detailed as I can be with this problem.

Shortly after getting my phone, I read about the benefits of the Voodoo Kernel (EXT4 file system, CWM, superuser privileges and other miscellaneous tweaks) and liked the idea of having the ability to further customize and safely increase the performance of my phone without overclocking. As a result, after trying out the phone for a day, I decided to flash the kernel.

Before flashing, I updated my device to EE4 and the latest Android build (I don't know if this makes a difference). I then downloaded the Kernel from here - ([How To] Droid Charge Root, Voodoo Lagfix and ClockworkMod Recovery Installation Guide | TheAndroidSoul) - and used Odin3 to flash.

After doing this successfully, I was satisfied until discovering one major problem; after plugging my phone into my computer, my SD card would be recognized as a CD-ROM drive. Because of this, I am unable to modify or copy files to the SD card after connecting it. I am forced to take my SD card out each time I wish to transfer files. USB Mass storage works fine prior to installation of the Voodoo Kernel, so I know it is not my PC causing the problem.

After trying the re-installation of the USB drivers on my PC, disabling the Samsung CD-ROM in device manager, and other miscellaneous tinkering around, I searched the Internet for answers. I found that because of my flashing the kernel, the phone may require a patch in order to fix the issue. This information is located here - ([Q] SD Card Shows up as CD-Rom - xda-developers)

If I want to install this patch (Or do any other ROM modifications I may wish to do in the future), I need to boot into CWM. This brings me to the real issue. From my understanding, CWM is included with the Kernel package that I had downloaded. Despite whether I use the keystrokes at bootup, use ROM manager to boot into CWM or flash CWM through ROM manager, my phone will reboot and freeze on the Samsung screen on the time I attempt it, and every subsequent boot-up essentially soft-bricking my phone. After this occurs, I need to re-flash the stock Samsung kernel in order to restore my phone to working order.

At the least, how can I fix the SD card issue with the Voodoo kernel? Even better, how can I fix the CWM problem so I can patch it or install custom ROMs? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

PS - I hope I did not make a stupid error contributing to the problem, and I apologize for the long-winded post!