saving CD's to Hard Drive?

I have little experience with itunes. But from what I know, if I copy a CD to iTunes, it can only be used with iTunes.

What if I just want to store CD's to my hard drive. Would I just save them as MP3? And how is that possible on the Mac without using iTunes?

Then could I use this copy of my CD's in a folder on my HD to put to either my iPod or Zune at a later time without have to put each CD in and go through that long process or use iTunes?

No you are wrong. Any CD imported to iTunes in whatever format you choose, is automatically stored in your iTunes folder, and can be used when and wherever you like.
It's the downloads form iTunes store that can't easily be shared around.
Use iTunes to rip your CD's and keep your library organised. It's a perfect tool.

Kevriano said:

It's the downloads form iTunes store that can't easily be shared around.

Click to expand...

Unless it's a iTunes Plus song which is DRM free. Mostly all of the iTunes store is DRM free now.

Another option for ripping your cd's; which yields a better quality file is to use Max. It's free and offers any file format you want for ripping.

AudioTechie said:

Another option for ripping your cd's; which yields a better quality file is to use Max. It's free and offers any file format you want for ripping.

Click to expand...

Ok, thanks to all for the replies, I was mistaken.

So what is the best file format for saving your CDs to disk?

I've not done it yet, but it seems that having all your CDs to disk would save time in the future.

Depends on if you'll be playing your songs in iTunes in the future. If so then go with AIFF, saves the meta data too. If not then FLAC. Both are lossless formats but AIFF is the one compatible with iTunes. Cheers.

But I guess as others have suggested using iTunes that AIFF can be used with other MP3 players as well? What is compatible with other MP3 players? Is Zune AIFF too?

I doubt that Zune will play AIFF, check it's specs online, but it will handle WAV, so you could use that instead.
iTunes can rip a multitude of formats.
Bear in mind here, that ripping in AIFF/WAV/FLAC takes up a lot of space, and to be perfectly honest, if you are only listening from an MP3 player, you are not gaining anything by doing so, unless you have the worlds best headphones and a really good player.
I would rip at 320 MP3, and then you have great quality still at a fraction of the HD space required. You will still have your CD's for use in the Hi-fi.