How do I copy the entire contents of a CD to my hard drive?
If it’s a CD-Audio disc, you’ll need a “ripper” program. Search www.hotfiles.com for some shareware programs that should be able to do it for you.
Of course, if the CD-Audio disc is very new, it may be copy protected. I’ve never really looked into this. Maybe someone else knows the answer.
But if it’s old, get a “CD ripper” program.
it’s a data cd. could i still use a CD ripper?
All you have to do is click and drag. Highlite all the files on the disk and drag them to whatever folder you want them in.
Since it’s a data CD, all you have to do is
a) Macintosh – drag the icon of the CD onto the icon of your hard drive. It will make a folder with the same title as the CD, containing all of the CD’s files;
b) Windows – open My Computer and open the icon of the CD; select all and right click and copy. Create new folder on hard drive. Paste.
This is assuming it’s a straightforward CD (not, for example, a CD that contains separate partitions for Mac and PC so as to be able to install a cross-platform program on either from the same CD). For such things as that, use Toast or EasyCD Creator to duplicate the CD to another CD.
It is also assuming that you have sufficient available space on your hard drive.
The CD may be copy protected. Most CDs containing programs are. If this is the case, then extracting any data from the disc is a violation of federal law. If just copying files off doesn’t work, or you get errors, this is why. Just FYI.
:eek:
Oh snap, I better turn myself in. I been gettin’ data off CDs fo’ years.
Ok I have to do a <straight>DOPE! slap on you for this one. :smack: The act of reading a CD extracts data off the disc and that is not a violation of federal law. The only time federal law is violated is if you make an unauthorised copy of the information. In the US Fair Use allows you to make one backup copy of the data on CD and many businesses copy frequently used CD’s to shares on the servers to speed up access time and that is perfectly legal.
Mbhan if you are trying to emulate a CD so you can access the data faster using your hard drive you may want to look into progams such as fantom cd.
Ah, yes, if you want the operating system (and the programs on the “CD”) to think they are really on a CD, you need to creat a disk image (usually), not just copy the files. On the Mac, drag the CD icon on top of the Disk Copy icon and it will prompt you to indicate where you want to save the disk image file. Double-clicking the resultant disk image file will cause it to mount (be available as if a CD were inserted).
Most of those CDs are not copy protected. Copy protection involves breaking “Red Book” and “Orange Book” standards by messing with data in the gaps and so forth.
Of course, this brings the question whether they can be called CD.
There are many programs out there that can make bit for bit CD images regardless of any copy protection scheme being used. One of the most popular is CloneCD which produces the common bin/cue image formats.