My sis filled up her entire 60 Gig hard drive with copied music CDs. When she handed it over to me, it had about 180 MB of space left. Eek!

I've freed up almost a GB by compressing things and removing temp files and stuff, but she doesn't want to part with any of the music.

So...here is my query. Is there a way to lower the bit rate on these files to cut their size down? The ones I checked were a whopping 1114 kbps(WMP doesn't even go that high)! I usually record mine at just 128Kbps. I swear that Windows Media Player had the capability to open a file and change the bit rate, but I can't seem to find it.

Any help is appreciated.

One solution (though a bit tedious) would be to burn all the music back onto audio CDs (preferably CD-RWs), delete them from the hard drive, and re-rip them at a lower bitrate.

There are also programs that can change bitrate. I think Nero Wave Editor can do it, but it costs money, and does one file at a time. I'd check the Freeware Replacements for Common Commercial Apps forum.

EDIT: Audacity might do it. It seems like the same kind of program as Nero Wave Editor.

this free app will help.

http://www.download.com/3000-2140_4-10042534.html