How to copy cds to an external hard drive

zorrofox

caleyles wrote: »

Thanks zorro this looks exactly the kind of thing I need - would it be a case of downloading the software then when inserting a disc does it ask where to copy and then I could choose the hard drive location?

Download EAC and install it. During installation it will test your drives to determine which is best. During this process it gives you the option to set it's default mode - i.e. whether absolute quality is paramount or absolute speed, it's your call. I have my best drive set up for quality and that's the only drive I'll use. It is possible to set a default folder to rip to in the preferences or you can let it ask you every time. I prefer to choose each time so that I make sure it goes where I want it to. Another thing worth considering - even if absolute audio quality is not paramount it still makes sense to rip to a lossless format as it can then be converted into whatever format you require for any given circumstance. For instance, I always rip to FLAC as I have the quipment to actually hear the difference. However, having this lossless copy allows me to the conver from FLAC to mp3 for my car stereo which allows me to isert a USB drive but will not deal with FLAC, only mp3. I then have two copies of the song or album.

My File structure is as follows -

G:\Music\Midlake\FLAC\The Trials of Van Occupanther[FLAC]

or

G:\Music\Midlake\MP3\The Trials of Van Occupanther

The downside is that ripping to FLAC is time consuming but it does mean you have a perfect copy for archiving.

It's actually a lot more complicated to explain than it is to do in reality.

caleyles

Thanks for the help I set it for mp3 as I was a unsure that if I selected FLAC how would we be able to play them on the pc - In hindsight I should have chosen FLAC as I want to make the best copy possible. I have a disc in at the moment to try it out - If I copy using FLAC would our laptop/pc be able to play that format with itunes/Win media player?

closed

foobar can play flac, mp3 is fine for most people, and far more portable.

zorrofox

As Closed says, Foobar2000 is best for FLAC but it's not the friendliest of programs to use. It has zero eye candy without going to extremes but it does do exactly what it says on the tin. Closed is also bang on as regards mp3 - as long as you rip mp3's at 320kbps the sound quality difference is generally negligible and every audio program or piece of hardware will play it back easily.

Richie-from-the-Boro

Just a small / big size point for the O/P refernce "" many many cds collected over many years ""

- if you have that many disks, although HDD space is cheap a flac is 5 times [ish] the size of an MP3
- so decide first what end product you will make use of MP3 or flac !
- so to save 500GB of MP3's, you will need two and a half terrabytes if you save in the flac format

Aiadi

Few comments:
1) If you import using iTunes (would not be my favorite method though as I rip to FLAC) then you can always change the location of music folder to your network drive. I used to do that a couple of years back but would imagine the newer versions of iTunes would still be capable of handling this quite easily.

2) EAC is definitely not for the faint-hearted especially if to be used to its full potential.

3) I'll definitely second the recommendation for dbPowerAmp.

TwistedPsycho

I think that as we are on a public forum where I know of at least one individual being forced to make a legal retraction on here:

Please ensure that you are permitted by copyright to make a copy of the CD in question. I am sure that the respondants on this thread will agree that whatever our views on copyright UP THE PIRATEBAY POLITICAL PARTY we can not condone breaching copyright in any form.

Also of course, many editions of Windows Media Player also rip from CD's.

Russel245

You can rip all of the music with windows media player (I'm looking at version 11)

just open options > rip music > rip music to this location > specify your network drive > pick a file type > tick rip CD when inserted and eject when completed.

WMP downloads all the data from the internet anyway too so no need for anything fancy.

Linbox

CDEX one of the easiest (FREE) and will auto tag all songs - in options, settings, freedb put a nonsense email address.

prowla

caleyles wrote: »

I have many many cds collected over many years and would like to save them all to an external hard drive.I would be grateful to anyone who could help me find an easy/cheap and relatively idiot proof way to do this. I hoped there would be some freeware option that could be set up so that I would enter the disc into the pc and it would then copy it to the hard drive with a way of labelling the disc name etc so that when I open up the hard drive I would see the disc name etc and then either myself or OH could play them on itunes etc and also allow us to gain extra space as we could then store the cds away - I am sure this must be relatively easy but please go easy on us - thanks in anticipation :question:

You can use iTunes to an external drive - just go to your iTunes Edit->Preferences->Advanced and set the "iTunes Media folder location" to be the folder you want on your NAS drive (eg. E:\music), and you're done.

I would tend to use one computer as the master machine that rips the CDs and manages the music folder, but any other can read it.

My iTunes music folder is \data\iTunes\iTunes Music, which is on a USB drive, rather than the default location.