Recording audio cassttes to PC

I am looking to copy audio cassettes to my PC, for which I am using a
JVC tape deck into my soundcard which seems to work fine on my home
PC, but not my laptop which for some silly reason only has
headphone/mic/video inputs! So I guess a need a firewire/USB
soundcard?

mc...

Or a line-level-to-mic-level attenuator. But an external soundcard for a
laptop is highly recommended -- it will be better isolated from the
electrical noise inside the laptop. I hear much better things about
Creative Labs than about the low-end Turtle Beach product.

I recorded a church service on an old cassette I grabbed from my box
(big mistake) and have discovered that the recording is quite poor,
and it also suffers with bleed from the other side, or tracks I was
recording over, the recording is quite valuable to me so how can I get
rid of the bleed? I notice if I use the recorders left/right volume
controls the bleed diminishes somewhat, but not all.

What can I do about this, I guess I need some recording software with
independent controls?

kludge...

No, you need a cassette deck that allows you to adjust the head alignment to
get as good a match as possible without leakage.

boats2006a...

I presume its the tape, not the recorder, as the tape plays the same
on different players?

kludge...

Right, but you can correct for the tape problems by adjusting the machine
alignment somewhat. It's not going to fix everything (although a transcription
machine with special narrowtrack heads might, at the expense of S/N), but
it will help.

Animix...

I think the Nakamichi Dragon does this.

Then we have the usual pops,clicks his etc.

Budget is a concern, but what software would you recommend?

mc...

You can reduce hiss with GoldWave (unlimited free trial). See
working from tape rather than vinyl records.

Thanks in advance.