The Techie Thread

[Santa's Boyfriend]

Since there's often a techie questions thread here, I thought I'd start one up for the new board...  

What are BIN and CUE files?  How do you make them into a file that can be recognised by a computer?  A lot of movies and games seem to be downloadable in this format, but I've no idea how it works.

[Bill Oddie]

Would it be an idea to sticky this thread for general techy questions?


(BIN files are just disk images I believe, use NERO to burn them to a cd and they can be used in whatever the file was intended for)

[Funky Gibbon]

From what I remember .bin files are binaries, usually referenced by another program, or files that still need to be compiled.

Edit: Or the above. I'm thinking back to the days when games came on floppies.

[Rats]

They're disc images. They're used to burn cds, you can do this with nero. Get VLC player, that can play movie bin files if you don't want to burn cds.

[5 Knuckle Shuffle]

The very easiest way to check a bin/cue file before burning it and finding it contains something you didn't want it to, is to mount it on a virtual drive. Daemon tools is a good one for this. If you want to burn an ISO, and are satisfied that it is what you wanted to burnto a disc, then just use Nero.Ignore the wizard that pops up and click File>open>image files (*.nrg, *.ISO, *.cue). Then burn the mofo.
Oh, the cue file holds the information for the bin file. The bin file is the main dood.

[Vermschneid Mehearties]

I think BIN. files are used to burn cds. You can do this with Nero. BIN. files are disc images. They're for burning onto a CD. Use CD Mage, as that's good.Y ou don't need to burn to CD to open a bin file, you need a program called Daemon Tools, which is virtual CD program which lets you mount the BIN image without a CD. The CUE file is a file which tells the BIN file to load up, and isn't needed unless you're burning to CD.

[glitch]

They're for burning onto CD. The .bin file is an archive of the CDs contents, and the .cue file tells the writer where to brun the sectors.

So either burn to CD or use a program like CD Mage to extract the contents of the .bin file.

[El Unicornio, mang]

You don't need to burn to CD to open a bin file, all you need is a program such as Daemon Tools, which is a free virtual CD program which lets you mount the BIN image without a CD.
The CUE file is merely a file which tells the BIN file to load up, and isn't really needed unless you're burning to CD. (Even then, BIN files will often load up anyway, depending on what hardware you're using)

[5 Knuckle Shuffle]

Hehehe, I wonder if Santa realises that these are images for burning to CD?

THEY'RE IMAGES FOR BURNING TO CD!!

[5 Knuckle Shuffle]

You don't need to burn to CD to open a bin file, all you need is a program such as Daemon Tools, which is a free virtual CD program which lets you mount the BIN image without a CD.
The CUE file is merely a file which tells the BIN file to load up, and isn't really needed unless you're burning to CD. (Even then, BIN files will often load up anyway, depending on what hardware you're using)

Read the posts dooood!!

[MojoJojo]

A .bin file (in this context, anyway) is just a plain copy (dump) of all the data on the cd, exactly as it is laid out on the cd. This isn't quite enough to burn the CD, however, so there is normally a little file with a bit of extra information, such as block sizes and stuff, in the .cue file.  The .cue file is just plain text, so you can open it up and look at if you want. You'll see you can change the filename of the .bin it wants to use, which is handy if you end up with a cue file with a different name to the bin file, which can happen if you're careless with your p2p programs.

I recommend Alcohol 120% for making them appear to be normal disks.

(they ask money for it, which seems to be a bit stupid considering what i is mainly used for....)

[El Unicornio, mang]

You don't need to burn to CD to open a bin file, all you need is a program such as Daemon Tools, which is a free virtual CD program which lets you mount the BIN image without a CD.
The CUE file is merely a file which tells the BIN file to load up, and isn't really needed unless you're burning to CD. (Even then, BIN files will often load up anyway, depending on what hardware you're using)

Read the posts dooood!!

Whoops, missed that one!

Incidentally, if it's a film you can also convert the BIN file to an AVI or MPEG with a program such as DVD2AVI

[gazzyk1ns]

They're image files. For burning onto a CD. Nero will do this for you.

[5 Knuckle Shuffle]

They're image files. For burning onto a CD. Nero will do this for you.

:thumbsup:

[Rats]

Bin files are just disk images. Its like a snapshot of a cd. You can use various programs to make a copy of the disk, I use nero. VLC player is good for playing bin files of vcd's and so on without burning disks.

[El Unicornio, mang]

Can I just add that BIN files are disk images which can be burned onto CD? Thanks.

[Rats]

A .bin file, yesterday

[Vermschneid Mehearties]

U Can uuz Nero if u want to. Dey r imigiz that u burn on2 a CD. .ISO's 2 win¬!!!!

[El Unicornio, mang]

A .bin file, yesterday

Burne it on LOL NO CD!!!11

[Vermschneid Mehearties]

;) Use NEro!¬`!

[Bill Oddie]

So lets review the main points discussed in the thread:

1) .Bin files are disk images
2) You can use Nero to burn them onto a C.D.

I think that just about covers it.

[Santa's Boyfriend]

So lets review the main points discussed in the thread:

1) .Bin files are disk images
2) You can use Nero to burn them onto a C.D.

I think that just about covers it.

Aaah, so .Bin files are for burning to disk!  

And I can use Nero for this, you say?

[Bill Oddie]

Aaah, so .Bin files are for burning to disk!  

Close: .bin files can be burned to disk, but they're actually disk images.

And I can use Nero for this, you say?

Correct.

[gazzyk1ns]

The thing is, what if I have no blank CDs... or I have, but I just want to play the file (assuming it's a video)? Windows Media Player gives me an error. Is there some third-party utility that might be able to play it for me by any chance?

[5 Knuckle Shuffle]

And, although I daresay you could burn bin files to disk, you would more than likely burn them to disc. Disks tend only to have a small capacity.

[El Unicornio, mang]

The thing is, what if I have no blank CDs... or I have, but I just want to play the file (assuming it's a video)? Windows Media Player gives me an error. Is there some third-party utility that might be able to play it for me by any chance?

Daemon Tools.
You can also open it with most dvd playing software

[splattermac]

Can I just say if like me you bought the LiteOn 811s DVD Writer (8x 4x 4x £98) and couldn't find alternative software to the shit awful mydvd it came packaged with, then Nero v6 is your friend, it took 8 minutes to burn 4.3GB FUCK ME!!

so now all I need to make that boast relevant is someone to say they are having problems with there 811s.

also the seemingly random NTLDR missing warning on boot up can be got around by going into the bios and changing the boot sequence to anything other than the HDD first, I went for CD. Don't know why it works but it does/did for me.

Check me out, I'm some kind of psychic IT genius. Mrs B of Nottingham don't buy that 10 port USB hub you've had your eye on, it spells financial ruin.

[terminallyrelaxed]

The thing is, what if I have no blank CDs... or I have, but I just want to play the file (assuming it's a video)? Windows Media Player gives me an error. Is there some third-party utility that might be able to play it for me by any chance?

Daemon Tools.
You can also open it with most dvd playing software

You don't need CDs or DVDs or even DVD playing software. As Rats said, you can open them with VLC Player, with you can download free from http://www.videolan.org. Just right click or control click (if ona mac) on the smaller sized file, the Cue, shuld be about 4kb, and open-with-VLC or open VLC and file-open-WetTeens6 or whatever, you know the drill.The Cue file is like a stub,a front end, kindalike a database program like Access or similar.

[gazzyk1ns]

Then what about if I want to burn the BIN or ISO to CD, what can I use to do that?

[El Unicornio, mang]

You need a program called 'Hero'