A "CD Ripper" is a program which allows your PC to take the information, whether it be raw or cooked, and transfer it to another drive of your choice.  The CD ripping program that I utilise (because the others that I've tried have bombed out on me) is CD Worx.  This copies the portion of a CD (audio) onto the drive in a *.WAV format, which is then compressed by an encoder (the player being the DEcoder).

Here's a screen shot:
 

I haven't added any other pics, because this little proggie uses elements of Win95, therefore using little disk space.  (eg.  if you click on the mic symbol, you'll open up sound recorder).

Click here to access the area/site from where you can download the application.