Now your speaking my language! (Computers is my primary hobby/job).
At work, I use a very unique method of "ripping" that I have yet to find a replacement that works the same way...
Years ago, Plextor used to have a software called "Plextor Manager 2000" that had came with a device driver (written by Oak Technology I believe it was, now owned by "Simplisoftware") that was called the "AFS driver". The software has looooonnnnnnggggg since been abandoned, and Simplisoftware doesn't even support the driver anymore.
Basically, at work I have all the computers setup with limited user access rights (I'm the admin). Most of the software we use (Vegas Audio, SoundForge, etc) that has built in ripping capabilities DOES NOT WORK unless the user has full admin rights.
So, as a workaround, I "extracted" this driver out of the old Plextor software and install it. Since it operates as a device driver, it bypasses the user access restriction problem.
Basically what it does is allow you to:
a) Drag and drop files off a CD just as if they were files on the hard drive
b) Treats all audio cd files (with the normal .cda extension) as .wav files. So if you browse with Windows Explorer or whatever, they show up and act just like .wav files
c) Allow files to be opened up directly from the CD instead of having to go thru a separate "ripping" process. The "ripping" is actually done "on-the-fly" and is completely transparrent to the user. As far as the user is concerned, they are just .wav files on the hard drive.
The only caveot to this driver:
1) It only works in Windows 2000 or LOWER (not XP compatible)
2) Only supports PLEXTOR drives. Will NOT work with ANY other brand
I have YET to find ANY other solution that works like this driver. I *think* Linux/Unix and maybe some other alternative OSes has the function to treat audio CD tracks as .wav files built in, why doesn't Windows?
-Alan
Last edited by FirebirdTN; 02/16/06 01:03 AM.
