converting your collection to lossless format like .Ape or .Flac or .Wavepack. Lossy (mp3) format is not a good choice for true backup.
You can burn them to DVD, where you would get about 5 to 10 cd's per disc. You can buy a external HD (big) and rip to it if you want also. Both DVD's and EX HD's are coming down in price all the time, so the choice is yours.
I have backed up some of my collection to DVD (Brand of DVD that is Made in Japan by TY). I rip them to a Wave image with EAC, then to Flac or Ape, scan the covers and Winrar them up on Store setting. This way I have a complete back up with no loss of quality.
I am thinking of converting my cd's to mp3's and wanted to know the best place for storage. One would be the computer harddrive which is 160GB and 89% of the C drive is free. Or should I get a separate external drive to make sure they are safe. By the way I do have over 500 cd's. I have an Emachines T5026 with 760MB of ram,dvd burner,cd-rom,intel pentium 4 3.06. Thanks in advance.

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