Years ago I burned about 20 cds with Musicmatch Jukebox (I think lol) In any event, when I play those cds on Windows Media player, it does not identify the artist or song, only the track number. I would like to rip these to my hard drive, but I need to identify them or it's an exercise in futility. How can I identify the songs before I rip them or will I have to do them one at a time and rename them.......or something like that?  I think all of them are MP3 format, but I'm not sure. 

You're best off to rename the files once they're on your hard drive but that's only part of the solution.  You should also update the metadata as well.  You can do this in Windows Explorer by right-clicking on the file(s) and selecting "Properties". - or - if you have Winamp, right click on the file name in the playlist and select "View File Info..."

Instructions for Windows Explorer

In the Properties dialogue box, select the "Summary" Tab

In the Summary tab there are two modes: "Advanced" and "Simple".  If it opens in the "Simple" mode, you'll see a button for "Advanced"... that's the mode you want.

In Advanced mode:  On the left column you'll see the different Properties - Album, Title, Year etc.  Click in the Value column next to the Property you want to change (to add the title of the song, the artist etc.). You don't need to do all of them.

The advantage to filling in this metadata is that it will display on other devices or media players like Winamp.  You can also set up Windows Media Player or Winamp to search for things like album art, lyrics etc. They read the metadata as search parameters.

Ok, so I should do this one song at a time then? Otherwise I would have several track 1's etc. Yikes, that's hundreds of songs  The only reason I want to do this is to make sure I have them saved somewhere other than on the cds in case they get turfed. I have so many that I d/l free (legally, honest) and I can't get them free now.


grumble, grumble, curse, curse the gd tech that formatted my hard drive without a backup disk, losing all my music,pictures, documents.....................he was suppose to.

Edited to add: I don't get a "summary" tab if I right click and click on properties. I get "general", "security" and "details"

What operating system are you running? XP, Win 7, Ubuntu?

Yes... each and every song one at a time.... I did it for over 2,000 songs in Winamp (easier than in XP)

Vista. lol  

OK... Just a suggestion: I don't use Windows Media Player too much - only occasionally to rip a CD to .mp3. I use Winamp for all my .mp3 playback because it's easier and pretty much self-explanatory. Winamp is free, highly configurable and easy to use. If you decide to go that route, I can post the instructions for setting up .mp3 files properly.

Let me think about it. I used to have Winamp a long time ago.  Strangely enough, I had mentioned  all of this yesterday to hubby and he didn't say a word. Today he says, 'OH, I know how to do that" lmao. He's sick with a bad cold and probably didn't even listen to me yesterday.

For anyone who's interested, on Vista you right click the file, click on Properties and on Details.

Now I just need to find the time and patience to do this. Right now I'm just getting over the cold I gave to hubby, so I'll wait. Head a little stuffed still, hard to concentrate. 1st cold I've had in years. grrrrrrrrrrrr

Edit: See? I've forgotten my manners. Thanks Sid

i like audiograbber for ripping music. it is intuitive, and freeware.

Give me a bit of time and I'll put it together for you... with pictures too.

  

MediaMonkey with a "free" Gold version key, and Tag&Rename to fix missing or screwed up tags.