Trouble getting EAC from CD to FLAC

[coolman5001]

Using foobar2000, I'm trying to rip a CD in my CD-drive to my external hard drive in FLAC format, compression level 8, but I'm getting errors in the conversion. I've tried reinstalling foobar2000, ripping to my hard drive instead of the external drive, and ripping one track at a time, yet none of these solved my problem. I still end up with audible differences; bitverifying sometimes turns up as many as 500,000 different samples.
I checked the FAQ, and all I got was to reinstall foobar2000, which didn't fix the issue.

Should I be ripping another way and then converting to FLAC post-rip?

Thanks for reading, any help is greatly appreciated.

[uhclem]

First of all, with all due respect to foobar2k, you should be using EAC (http://www.exactaudiocopy.de) to rip the CD. The thread title says you are using EAC, but your post seems to be saying you are using foobar2k to rip.

I'm a bit confused about what your problem is.

[coolman5001]

What I meant by EAC in the thread title was "Exact Audio Copy" - I didn't realize there was a utility called EAC, I wouldn't have used that wording if I had. I'll try it again with EAC and see how it goes; thanks for your help.

[Five]

check the links in my signature for help with configuring EAC and some foobar2000 tutoritals.

[RainDawg]

Yes, CD > EAC > WAV means that Exact Audio Copy has been used to extract that PCM audio data from disc to .wav format. This is required as per TTD guidelines. WAV > foobar2000 > FLAC8 is the next step.

[coolman5001]

I managed to get EAC configured properly (thanks for the link, Five) and tried ripping an album to my computer - the same one as before, "Extended Play - Live at Birdland" by the Dave Holland Quintet - and it all went fine except for one track. The entire second disc ripped just fine, as did all of the first disc, except for the track in question. I skipped it to run the rest and then ran it on its own, and left it running overnight. The next morning, EAC said it had been running for nigh on 8 hours, and it was still going. Keep in mind this track is only ~8 minutes long.
Is this track really so badly compromised that EAC has so much difficulty taking a reading, or is something else going on here?

[pmonk]

Yes. The CD can be damaged (i.e. scratched) our could be very dirty. Look at bottom side of the CD and check to see if it is scratched. Sometimes if dirty you can clean it and this might help. If the CD is scratched/damaged then nothing can be done.

[Five]

you're welcome for the link.

pmonk66 is right... some cd/cdrs are fubar'ed, sometimes just a couple tracks, sometimes the whole thing. I've had cdrs give me trouble and managed to get a perfect extraction by using "paranoid mode". Go to EAC > Drive Options > (click OK) > Extraction Method > select Paranoid.

Beware, tho! it says it could potentially cause permanent damage to your drive, altho mine is fine. If it's spending more than an hour on an 8 minute song I'd hit the cancel button, even if it works at that point it will probably be full of errors.

[coolman5001]

Awesome. Paranoid mode worked perfectly; no read errors, no sync errors, track quality of ~96%.
I'll remember to use that if any others give me trouble. Thanks again!

[Five]

:thumbsup

I usually switch it back to "secure" when I'm done just so I don't forget later.