Sorry to ask such a common question, but the search feature kept insisting I was not entering enough words (but I was), and I didn't see any relevant appearing titles in the Audio tutorial section...

I have a few MP3 CDs that are about 5 years old that I'd like to store/play on HDD. Opening the CD in Windows Explorer shows a list of MP3's without any file structure, appearing like a typical data CD. However, no matter how I try to drag the songs into a folder on the HDD (Copy/Paste/drag via mouse, keyboard shortcuts, or right-click options) all it does is create a shortcut to each tune on the disc the optical drive.

I tried using WMP 9 to rip them but it doesn't support MP3 or at least will only convert to WMA or WAV. Don't want to install WMP 10 or above just to rip some tunes...

There must be a simple way to rip these tunes off the CD without having to buy an application for it. I do have Roxio 6 but see no obvious audio ripping features, and also have Nero Essentials 7 but haven't installed it yet; will either of these apps help?

Thanks!

Hi,

normally, drag'n'drop to a folder on the harddrive should work.
Since this does not, I suspect either some copy protection on the disc (that has automatically loaded), some Windows issue or a bad disc.

I'd get a Linux live CD like Knoppix or Kanotix, boot from it and try to copy the mp3 files from the CD to a HDD folder. This would be the safest way to rule out Windows issues.

You could also try if copying the files onto disc works on another computer.

Michael

That's an odd one...
Does the CD actually play ok? That will give you an indication of whether the disk has a problem.

I'd try making a copy of the disk on another computer too, and seeing if that makes any difference.

Thanks guys!

I don't think the music is copyright protected, as it was downloaded around 5-6 years ago before DRM reared its ugly head. Besides, wouldn't copy protection stop it from being copied to another disc? This disc is actually a copy made from the adhesive labeled original that began to become unplayable about 3 years ago; the copy is on a TY disc and plays fine, so I don't suspect damaged data to be the problem preventing me from copying to HDD.

Well anyway, thanks again for the reply. At least I know now that the methods I tried using to copy to HDD should have worked...

Perhaps Copy and Paste will work? Select the file(s) in Explorer and try the right click menu...

Already tried...

Make an image on HD (ISO with Nero...) and try extracting from there (7-Zip...).

And to try something completely different, there's always a Linux Live CD .

I wonder if the OP has some unknown system copy protection installed. Root-kit type stuff.