You bought a CD.

We have to assume that you intend to use it with a cassette player?

The CD is assumed to contain a program that converts the output from the cassette player to something else that you can save for use on some other kind of machinery.

Normal practice would be to include, with the CD, a "Start Guide" that would typically be a singe sheet of instructions, and should include what to do if nothing happens when you insert the CD into the drive on your computer.

If there was no Start Guide with the CD, there may be instructions on the CD. Most common practice is to put such information in a text file, often named "Readme.txt" or "ReadmeFirst.txt." If another name is used for on-CD instructions, it most likely still will be something with a ".txt" filetype, and all such files will open in Notepad just by clicking on them. Rarely, such files may be .htm/.html or other formats.

Assuming that you're using Windows(?) Windows Explorer will show all of the drives on the computer in what displays as a folder called "Computer," and will show the CD/DVD drive even if there's no disk in it. Recent Windows versions put an icon on the desktop labelled "Computer" and if there's one there, clicking it will go directly to the right place. If you don't have that icon, Start|All Programs|Accessories|Windows Explorer should get you there, although it will probably open up in some other folder and you'll have to navigate to a folder at "Computer" usually will be just below all the crap libraries and you "user folders."

If your optical drive (CD/DVD) doesn't show, you probably have a defective drive, bad connection, or other physical problem. Built in tools allow you to "Find All Drives" and make some kinds of corrections for a drive that's been "dismounted" (deliberately made invisible?) but instructions may vary with what Windows version you have.

Once you find the CD drive, you can look at what files are on it using Windows Explorer, just like finding anything in any Drive or folder. If you see the CD drive (i.e the drive works) but it doesn't show any files on it (you may get a "Please insert a CD" popup) it's most likely that the CD itself is defective. (Sometimes putting a Mac disk in a Windows CD drive, or vice-versa, may give the same result.)

Common practice is to include an "Autorun" file on program CDs that will start automatically or open the program (Media Player et. al.) needed to run what's on the CD when you insert the CD for the first time. Sometimes the Autorun fails to start, and sometimes there isn't an Autorun file on the CD.

Most likely, for a program CD, the Autorun is intended to start a "Setup.exe" that will install the software/information that needs to be on your System hard drive for the program. If the setup doesn't run automatically when you insert the disk, you may need to launch it (click or double-click) from the CD using Windows Explorer.

Note that some program CDs are intended to run only with the CD in place in your CD drive, and programs of this kind may or may not need to install something on your hard drive as well.

Most programs that insist you have the CD in the drive can be run without it.

1. IF YOU'VE INSTALLED OR RUN THE PROGRAM FROM THE CD you need to uninstall it first (Control Panel|Add/Remove Programs).

2. Make a folder on your hard drive for the program. Usual practice is to put the folder in C:\Program Files but it can be anywhere.

3. Copy ALL OF THE CD into the folder you created. (Don't put anything else in that folder.)

4. Reinstall using the setup that you copied to the folder on your hard drive. (Autorun is unlikely to run from the new location, so you'll have to find and launch the setup manually.)

John