Ripping CDs in Windows Media Player

Your computer may take longer to rip a CD if it has a slower processor or not enough RAM. Windows Media Player 10 requires a 233 megahertz (MHz) processor or faster to run and at least 64 megabytes (MB) of RAM, but a 1.5 gigahertz (GHz) processor or faster and at least 512 MB of RAM are recommended.

The amount of free space and fragmentation on your hard disk can affect the speed of the ripping process. Windows Media Player 10 requires at least 100 MB of free hard disk space, but at least 60 gigabytes (GB) of free space is recommended. Excessive fragmentation of your hard disk can also slow the ripping process. For more information about reducing disk fragmentation, see Speed Up Access to Data.

Both the speed and the interface of the hard disk drive that you are ripping tracks to can affect the ripping speed. For example, a 5400 rpm hard disk drive will likely write data slower than a 7200 rpm drive. Similarly, ripping songs to an external hard disk drive connected to your computer via USB 1.1, to a flash storage drive, or to a network drive may be slower than ripping songs directly to your computer's internal hard disk drive.

Both the speed and the interface of the CD drive that you are ripping tracks to can affect the ripping speed. Generally, drives at higher speeds will rip songs from a CD faster than drives at lower speeds. Similarly, Windows Media Player will probably perform better when using a CD drive connected via IEEE 1394 or USB 2.0 than when using a drive connected via USB 1.1.

The device settings for your CD drive can affect CD ripping speed. To access settings for your device, do the following:

On the Audio tab, when Digital is selected in the Rip area, digital mode is used when ripping CDs. If you have problems ripping tracks when Digital is selected, click Analog instead. This is especially important if you notice hiccups or pops in the ripped audio files and your CD drive is a slower drive (either single-speed or double-speed).

When the Use error correction check box selected in the Rip area, the Player will try to fix problems that are caused when songs are ripped to your computer. This can help reduce any noise in the audio, but it can increase the time needed to rip songs from a CD. For more information, see Why do I get error C00D0FAB when I try to rip songs from a CD?

A problem with your CD drive or CD can reduce ripping speed. For example, the lens inside the drive—through which the laser passes to read from and write to discs—might be dirty or dusty. You can purchase a CD lens cleaner kit to clean the lens. Also, the disc could be dirty or damaged. Try gently cleaning the disc with a soft, lint-free cloth and soapy water, and be sure to keep your discs in jewel cases when not in use.

Settings in Windows Media Player can also affect the speed at which songs are ripped from CDs. To access these settings, on the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Rip Music tab.

Select different formats in the Format drop-down list box to see if that speeds up the ripping process. For example, ripping songs in Windows Media Audio (WMA) format usually takes less time than ripping songs in MPEG Audio Layer-3 (MP3) format. You can also try moving the Audio quality slider to find a balance between audio quality, file size, and ripping speed that works for you.

Using Windows Media Player to do something else while you are ripping tracks—such as playing a video or browsing an online store—can make the ripping process slower. Similarly, running other programs on your computer while you are ripping can slow the process as well.

Change the audio quality setting for ripping CDs. This option is the easiest to perform. However, it will not enable you to rip CD tracks into MP3 files that have an audio quality setting of 128 kilobits per second (Kbps).

Delete the value of the LowRateSample registry key. This option is more complex to perform. However, it will enable you to rip tracks into 128 Kbps MP3 files.