Replying to Computer help

So my dad got this free laptop from this dude who he worked with. And my dad bought all the soft ware for it and stuff but theres one problem theres no cd drive. to me it looks pretty new. I think its an hp. but ill look later. So I was wondering if theres away to load the sttuff one there? Like an external cd drive. Any help would be appriciated. I want to use it mostly for editing movies and such. Im also kinda slow when it comes to how computers go together so make it simple. all the fancy letters get me confused. thanks