I ordered a copy of Fallout Collection for my windows 8 HP Pavillion, however when I insert the disc it says it does not recognise the format?

Who did you buy the disc from? Can you open Windows Explorer and see if it shows a disk loaded in your optical drive? Is the optical drive DVD or Blu-Ray? Does it say what type of disk it is on the label? Is that enough questions for now?

It's entirely possible that the installer used on the disc is no longer compatible. I've come across that with a few older programs after updating to Windows 7. If you want something that's relevant, you can get the early games through Steam. They have a package that includes Fallout 1, 2 and Tactics.

The original Fallout installer was deliberately made incompatible as a condition of receiving the 'Made for Windows 95' logo. (IE. M$ demanded it of them.)

More recent installers might still be 16-bit; lost since server 2003/XP64. The first thing to do is to inspect the disc for dirt or smudges.

If the disc is readable, but the installer won't run, then it may be possible to install Fallout 1 & 2 by manually copying them to an install folder, and altering the config files for each game.

If it were mine, I would check the disc on a win7/mac/ or XP machine, just to know if the disc is not at fault.

*Worst case: If the discs can be read on a different PC, install them on that machine and move the install folders to the desired desktop via flash drive. Do not install them in the system's 'programs' folder.

Fallout 1 & 2 have no dependence on the Windows Registry or any outside applications folder AFAIK.

I may get a steam acct, simply because, even with patches, I play anywhere between getting Vic and getting access to Vault City, and I get a glitch that seems as if the mouse is continuously scrolling down.