How To Open Cd Drive On Dell Desktop

How to Open a CD/DVD/BD Drive.With a Paper Clip. It sounds strange, yes, but most computer optical drives, including external ones and those you'll find in your game systems like Xbox and PlayStation, have a tiny pinhole that's designed as a last resort method to get the drive bay open. To copy a CD to your Windows Vista PC, first, place the CD in your CD-ROM/DVD drive. Choose start, then computer. In the computer window, double click the CD-ROM drive item to open it. If the file or folder that you want is stored within another folder, double click the folder or a series of folders, until you locate it. Or maybe you will want to install a program from a compact disc. Notes on opening a cd to see its contents: You can experiment and try to open a cd drive. Put a disc in your cd drive and then go to my computer and try to open the cd to see its contents. If you open the wrong cd drive nothing will happen, just close that and open the correct one.

When you insert a compact disc into your cd drive in your computer there are a few ways to view the contents of the cd. Obviously if the compact disc is blank there will be nothing to see, however if there are files you can view, copy, and paste them to your computer. Also if there are music files such as mp3’s, you can play them from the disc. If you have a game CD it will most likely open and show up on the screen.

Open

How to open a compact disc automatically to see the contents?

Sometimes an Autoplay dialog box will appear automatically when you insert a cd. This will enable you to choose what action to take with the cd. To see the contents of the compact disc that you have just inserted simply press on Open folder to view files. See the screenshot below. This screenshot was taken from Windows Vista, however in Windows XP it looks very similar.

Open

How to change the Compact disc auto play options?

Windows Vista

  1. Go to the start menu, choose control panel.
  2. Find the Autoplay icon. Double click on it.
  3. Choose your action for each process by pressing the drop down arrow to choose form the list.

Windows XP

  1. Go to the start menu, choose my computer.
  2. Find your cd rom icon.
  3. Right click on it and choose properties from the menu.
  4. The CD drive properties will appear.
  5. Go to the Autoplay tab.
  6. Press the drop down arrow to see your choices. Music files, Pictures, Video Files, Mixed content, and Music CD. See circled arrow below.
  7. This is where you can change what happens when you insert a cd.

If you choose pictures from the list, the actions will change to things you can do with pictures. You can choose to print pictures from a cd, extract them to a folder, view a slide show, and so on. If you choose music you can choose to play the music, open the folder to view files, or take no action at all. After you have set your options press apply and then ok. See the screenshots below for more details. Windows XP CD auto play options are very different to Windows Vista.

How do you open a compact disc when auto play does not work?

If your cd does not open automatically then you can open it through my computer. Simply go to the start menu, choose my computer or computer for Windows Vista.

When my computer appears you will see all drives on your computer. Some compact discs will show a unique icon so you can tell where they are, however a data cd will look similar to an empty cd drive. The only difference may be a name, however in this case there is a string of grey text saying how much free space is on the drive. The drive with nothing in it has no grey text as it is empty.

Simply double click (click the left mouse button twice) on the cd drive you want to open to see the contents. The same applies for both Windows XP and Windows Vista.

Why do you need to know how to open a compact disc?

If you have a computer you will need to know how to open a compact disc to view contents of a disc. Maybe someone might give you a photo cd or a cd with files on it. Or maybe you will want to install a program from a compact disc.

Notes on opening a cd to see its contents:

  • You can experiment and try to open a cd drive. Put a disc in your cd drive and then go to my computer and try to open the cd to see its contents.
  • If you open the wrong cd drive nothing will happen, just close that and open the correct one.
  • To tell the truth, cd’s are becoming extinct as everything is digital now. Even if you download a program online, it no longer has to be transferred onto a disc to install.
  • A cd is one of many backup storage devices available.
Note

This page provides information on how to determine which drives and drive letters your computer is using currently. Sony ic recorder icdp620 driver for mac. It is not a list of all of the possible drive letters.

See drives in Windows 10 and Windows 8

If you're running Windows 10 or Windows 8, you can view all mounted drives in File Explorer. You can open File Explorer by pressing Win+E (hold down the Windows key and press E). Amar chitra katha complete collection pdf download. In the left pane, select This PC, and all drives are shown on the right. The screenshot shows a typical view of This PC, with three mounted drives.

OS & Primary Software (C:)

In our first example, the C: and F: drives are hard drives. Most computers only have a C: drive. The hard drive is the primary location where all files are stored on your computer. To open the drive, double-click the drive.

Tip

In our example, the drives are labeled 'Local Disk' and 'New Volume.' A hard drive can be labeled anything and may be different on your computer. For steps on changing the name of your drive, see: How to rename or label a disk drive.

Note

All new computers no longer have a floppy drive (A: or B:) but still start with the C: drive by default. For the history of why a computer starts with the C: drive, see: Why is the hard drive the C: drive?

DVD RW Drive (D:)

Desktop

The D: drive in this example is the optical disc drive installed in the computer. In most situations, the disc drive will be the last drive letter. If a disc is in the drive, the contents of that disc will be shown if you double-click the drive icon. How to unlock rotation on iphone 7.

Tip

If the drive AutoPlays the disc, right-click the drive and click Explore.

See available drives in Microsoft Windows 7 and earlier

Microsoft Windows 7, Vista, XP, and earlier users can identify which drives Windows has detected by opening File Explorer and then My Computer or pressing the Windows key+E shortcut key. The picture is an example of My Computer. As you can see in this example, three different drive types are listed.

Tip

In Windows 7 and earlier versions, you can access My Computer (Computer) by double-clicking the icon on the desktop. Or, open the Start menu, and select My Computer or Computer, depending on the version of Windows you're using.

3 1/2 Floppy (A:)

If the computer has a floppy disk drive, this drive will be visible and is usually set as the A: drive. If any floppy diskette is in the computer and the A: drive is opened, its contents will be shown.

Note

All new computers no longer have a floppy drive (A: or B:) but still start with the C: drive by default. For the history of why a computer starts with the C: drive, see: Why is the hard drive the C: drive?

Local Disk (C:), New Volume (D:), and New Volume (E:)

How To Open Cd Drive On Dell Desktop

Next, in our example, the C:, D:, and E: drives are hard drives or hard drive partitions on the computer. Most computers only have a C: drive. The hard drive is the primary location where all files are stored on your computer.

How To Open Cd Drive On Dell Desktop Computers

Tip

In our example, the drives are labeled 'Local Disk' and 'New Volume.' A hard drive can be labeled anything and may be different on your computer. For steps on changing the name of your drive, see: How to rename or label a disk drive.

Compact Disc (F:)

Finally, the F: drive in this example is the optical disc drive installed in the computer. In most situations, the disc drive will be the last drive letter. If a disc is in the drive, the contents of that disc will be shown if you double-click the drive icon.

Tip

If the drive AutoPlays the disc, right-click the drive, and click Explore.

See drives in Windows 3.0, 3.1, and 3.11

How To Open Cd Drive On Dell Desktop

Windows 3.0, 3.1, and 3.11 users can open drives through the Windows File Manager. In the File Manager, click the drive icons shown above the folder and files. By default, the C: drive will be open. If you want to move to the floppy disk drive, click the A: drive icon. If you're going to open the CD drive, click the D: CD-ROM drive icon.

See drives in MS-DOS and the Windows command line

Windows Vista, 7, 8, and 10 command line users

Open cd drive dell computer

If you're using Windows Vista, 7, or 8, use the wmic command at the Windows command line to view available drives on the computer. At the prompt, type the following command.

Or, for a little more information, such as volume size, use this command:

  • See our wmic command page for further information and examples on this command.

Other Windows command line and MS-DOS version users

Unfortunately, there is no easy way to list all available drives on the computer through the MS-DOS prompt with one command. Below are different recommendations for viewing drives.

How To Open Cd Drive On Dell Desktop Computer

Change drive letter

Change the drive to an alternate drive letter to determine if a drive is available and ready if no error message is received.

Fdisk

Running the fdisk command allows you to view how the hard drives are set up and configured on the computer. However, this command is only possible if you're running a version of MS-DOS or Windows that supports fdisk.

  • See the fdisk command page for additional information about this command.

vol

Open Cd Drive Dell Inspiron

Running the vol command on a drive displays the drive label and serial number if available. This command allows you to see what drives are detected.

  • See the vol command page for additional information and help with this command.

See drives in the Apple macOS

From the menu bar, select Go, and select Computer or press Shift+Command+C keyboard shortcut.

You can also view all drives through the Finder application.

Open Cd Tray Dell Desktop

See drives in Linux

How To Open Cd Drive On Dell Desktop

Linux users can use the fdisk command to see their partition and drive information.

Additional information

  • See the drive and storage device pages for further information and related links.