October 9th, 2007
Home data compression you can see
iTunes has rendered my CD cases obsolete
A few weeks ago I realized that I had enough disk space - 1 TB - on my desktop to rip all my CDs as 320 Kb/s MP3s. I had also built a $50 DVD burner so I re-ripped most of my lower fidelity CDs and ripped the 60% I’d never ripped before.
My iTunes collection went from 35 GB to 85 GB. And my CD collection went from 30 feet of shelf space to a small box.
iTunes speed ripping tip - Windows & Mac
iTunes will only import one CD at a time, but if you have two CDs on your system, you can set iTunes to automatically rip a CD and eject when done. The system tells you when to swap in a new CD when it ejects the ripped CD.
Go to iTunes Preferences - in the Edit menu in Windows and the iTunes menu on Mac - and click on Advanced. The first drop down menu is labeled “On CD insert:”. Choose “Import CD and Eject”. Check the “Automatically retrieve CD track names from Internet” box, click OK and iTunes will now start ripping a new CD as soon as it can and ejecting them once they’ve been imported.
Now you’re good to go.
How much space can you save?
Depends on how many CDs you’ve got. Here’s a picture of most of my empty CD cases - I chopped a couple of stacks off on the right - with my new, slimmed-down CD collection in front.
If I move again, the entire CD collection is already packed and ready to go.
Why keep them? It is only “fair use” to rip them if you retain the originals. And I value the back up.
Comments welcome, of course. Anybody want some used CD cases?
Robin Harris has been messing with computers for over 30 years and selling and marketing data storage for over 20 in companies large and small. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
Subscribe to Storage Bits via Email alerts or RSS.
