i have an HP Pavilion dv7-1273cl

This is a list of hardware and software:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4677955&CatId=3444

The optical drive is suppose to do more than what i need to do ( i don't have anything blue-ray but it's there if i ever do )
The only thing that i have used the drive for so far is to copy a music cd to my hard drive. It did what it was suppose to do. Last week i got a copy of an MRI from the VA which came on a CD. i put the disc in, heard it turning but nothing came up on the screen. i tried viewing the data on the CD several times but whenever i get to a place that i ask to explore, OPEN, or run, it POPS the cd out and asks me to put a CD in. i had two other cd's from the VA that i never looked at before but they behaved the same way now when i try to view them. It wouldn't surprise me if the VA didn't complete the process of copying the images so they can be read on any computer. i called them and no ONE knows anything about anything. Typical gov agency!

Is there someway of finding out if there is anything on the CD?I never heard of it.  Have you tried another machine then moveing the data over?  COULD be the cd drive in the machine   I had were I put a dvd into a cd drive thinking it would work only to realse that it wasnt a cd.Since my other computers were bugged i thought it best not to try the cd in them. My GF is comng tomorrow i'll try it in hers and see if it works.If the CD's were not finalised in the burn they will show as empty...
DLoad install and run the Free ver. of IsoBuster on them and see what it finds...I also had an MRI CD that would not open on one computer but opens fine on another. Don't know why. Is your drive DVD?BTW, another thing about my MRI CD is it takes almost a minute for the drive to read mine before anything happens, so as long as the LED light on your drive shows it's working, give it some time.Its probably the format?  What do you think PAT?  I have dual drives but some disk just wont work in some but will in others not sure why that is just wanted to see if the disk wasnt bad or anything like that.  So we know that it didnt get scratched or something.