TECHNOLOGY - PART II - HELP!!!!

So last night i decided to "just reinstall the applications", to quote Kelvin, on my laptop.

Palm Pilot - fine.
RealPlayer - apparently fine.
Nero (Cd burning software) - apparently fine.

Time to reload my MP3 files from the CD's I burnt.

Disk goes in. Fine
Files are there. Fine
Copy to C drive. Fine
Copy into RealPlayer so I can put on my MP3 player - DISASTER!

RealPlayer won't accept any of the files I created from my own CD collection because of something called a "security key". Apparently when you create MP3 files using RealPlayer it adds some security key or code to the file so that it can't be copied elsewhere. God knows why but a lot of swearing later I couldn't get any of the files into RealPlayer, so I am looking at having to re-record everything.

Ironically the illegal KaZaa downloads don't have this "security" feature so RealPlayer accepts them without a murmur!

I then thought perhaps trying to load them from the external CD Drive/burner might be a way round it. DISASTER 2.

The laptop doesn't seem to recognise the external CD Drie, and the best efforts of myself and Mrs C to fix it using the Nero software that it came with have yielded no results.

SO.........

Does anyone know a way round the RealPlayer Security feature?

If not - can someone recommend another application for recording my CDs to MP3 which doesn't have this stupid "security" feature. I can then import the files into RealPlayer easily?

Does anyone have any suggestions for getting the laptop to recognise the external CD Drive?

HHHHHEEEEELLLLLPPPPP!!!!!