Computer help needed - any experts out there

[PartridgeinaRustyBearTree]

Is there anyone there who can help my DH with his problem?
He has an external hard drive with lots of data he needs for a training course he's giving on Tuesday, but when he plugs it in, although the laptop recognises it with it's normal drive letter, it doesn't autorun & when he click on it, it shows up all the stuff from the laptop - as far as I can see, the contents of the My Documents folder.
When he plugs it into my laptop it's fine, it shows up all the data as it should be. Trouble is, my laptop doesn't have the software he needs to work on it...
I would be grateful if anyone can help as DH is tearing his hair out & he hasn't got that much to start with!

would it worked if he went into

my computer
right click the icon
the drop down box should have an auto run option?

My laptop stopped auto running things, but is fine if I do the above.

What does it need to run it? Could you install it onto your laptop?

Thanks for the really quick reply!
It's not really the lack of autorun that's the problem, it's that when you do get into it, it lists the files on the laptop's hard drive instead of what's on the external USB hard drive. We know those files are still there because they show up when you plug it in to another computer. I think it's the laptop not pointing in the right direction iyswim

Ok update - when I asked DH what he's been doing recently he said he'd been downloading photos from a USB drive last night - when I restarted the laptop,and clicked on the little green arrow you use to eject USB stuff it came up with the card reader as being still there..... (it hadn't been listed there before the restart)
When I ejected it & tried again - bingo!!!
So it just demonstrated to DH that you really should bother to eject the USB before removing it -it screwed up all the USB ports, not just the one it had been in!!
Thanks for the really quick replies everyone - just glad it's been sorted - now we just have the central heating to sort out - waiting for the gas man now....

yes, you do need to stop the USB before you pull it out....lol!

Glad it's sorted!

I'm always telling people that.... I assumed DH always did it too.....