[gugin]

To the OP: Sorry about the delay in responding; I was on a business trip.

To follow up on Foobar2000, it's freeware and can be run in a portable mode. I'll upload my fully configured portable installation somewhere later today if anyone is interested in trying it out without the hassle of going through the configuration process. The attached screenshots show how you convert from one format to another. As I said above, all of my music is in FLAC and properly tagged, and I typically convert to MP3 for my wife's car. The process is as follows:

1. Drag and drop the FLAC folder into Foobar2000. This can take some time if you have many albums. For simplicity, the screenshots only show one album in the Foobar2000 window.
   
   
2. Select all files (CTRL+A) and right click. Choose the Convert option, item "..." in the submenu. See screenshot #1.
   
   
3. The Converter Setup window opens. See screenshot #2. In that window, click on Output Format and choose MP3 as well as the quality you want. Make sure that Processing section says "None." If it says something different, click on Processing and deselect everything (unless you want to post-process the audio in some specific way, but then you probably know what you are doing and do not need this guide). The Other section should say "Transfer tags and attached pictures." This ensures that all of your FLAC tags will be ported to MP3 flags, including album covers. If your FLAC music is not tagged, this will simply do nothing (but I highly recommend that you tag your music as in my experience iDrive works better with tags).
   
   
4. The Destination section is the most important. Clicking on Destination opens a new window. See screenshot #3. Set Output Path to the folder where you want your MP3s to be saved. Output Style and File Name should read "$directory(%path%,2)\$directory(%path%,1)\%filena me%" This instructs Foobar2000 to replicate the FLAC folder structure in the MP3 output folder. Foobar2000 counts folders from the bottom up. So "$directory(%path%,1)" refers to the folder in which the individual FLAC files are saved. "$directory(%path%,2)" refers to its parent folder. I only use two levels because my FLAC folder is organized as follows:
   
   R:\FLAC\Pink Floyd\A Momentary Lapse of Reason\
   R:\FLAC\Pink Floyd\A Saucerful of Secrets\
   R:\FLAC\Pink Floyd\The Dark Side of the Moon\
   R:\FLAC\Pink Floyd\The Division Bell\
   R:\FLAC\U2\Achtung Baby\
   R:\FLAC\U2\Boy\
   R:\FLAC\U2\No Line on the Horizon\
   R:\FLAC\U2\October\
   
   Hopefully you get the idea--i.e., every album is two folders down from R:\FLAC. If your music is organized in a way that does not employ a folder structure with constant depth (e.g., some FLAC files are in the root folder, some are one folder down, some are two folders down), then use "$directory_path(%path%)\%filename%" You may, however, need to make some adjustments after everything is converted. For example, if I set the Output Path to "R:\MP3", I'd end up with MP3s in R:\MP3\FLAC\etc., and would have to bring all of the folders one level up to get rid of the extraneous FLAC subfolder right under MP3.