Can't copy CDs onto computer. Why?

[Briandog]

For some reason, as of late, any time I put a music CD into the drive of my computer and try to copy a song onto the hard drive, a microsoft media player icon to say that a new song has been copied appears in My Documents (as it always did and should) but when I then click on this icon to play the song, nothing happens. I have checked the properties of these files when this has happened and the file size is always far too small to be a fully copied song (but too large to be simply a shortcut). Also, though I can't remember exactly what this file size is, it is always the same.
Any assistance in figuring out what is going on here or how I might go about putting the problem right would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Briandog

[Sylvander]

I think you'd need to "rip" the ".cda" file to a ".wav", ".mp3", or ".wma" file.
Try the latest [free] "CDex" prog from http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/downloads.php
I have the stable version 1.51 and it seems to be just as good as the older version.

I have version 7.10 of Media Player, but haven't used it much.
I'm told by someone who did use it a lot on my PC that it is good.

[rio_bugarin]

It would be helpful if you say what version of Media Player you use. I am not familiar how things are done in media player 7... because i use musicmatch to copy audio cds to mp3s

[ErnieK]

If these are new Cd's it could be some form of copy protection. I know that a few months ago one type of protection would not allow oyu to play the CD on a computer.

[Sylvander]

I don't think so Ernie.
I tried it with a CD made by the band my son is in; [no copy protection], and it was just the same for me.

[Mr.Umbrella]

There is other convenient audio grabber for CD-ROM drives.
RazorLAME (http://www.dors.de/razorlame/download.php). Personally I use 1.15 version of it.

[jcnoernberg]

EAC (exact audio copy) and LAME (mp3 encoder) can be had for free from www.afterdawn.com, definately in the top ten of rippers/encoders

[garybeafl]

I have been using this for years and I think it is the best and free.

http://www.audiograbber.com-us.net/

[prasad_den]

Download windows media player 10 from the microsoft website and use the rip CDs feature. Its fast and reliable.