.BIN / .CUE / .ISO Frequently asked questions. READ1ST

I have downloaded numerous .bin/.iso files and of yet haven't had one match an integer by dividing file size by 2352. But they have almost all worked. My problem now though is that i have a file that came as an .exe and is invalid, and all attempts at finding the correct filetype have failed. I burned one copy out of desperation as a .bin and used Mode1/2352 in my .cue and the resulting CD shows up as an audio cd now to my computer. I have used Isobuster to no avail in finding the image is not corrupted, so am I to believe that is the case then. Or why does the file show as one track of 716,920. Please any comments appreciated.

 

First, if the image is a .BIN, RAW .ISO or .IMG then its size (in bytes, not in kbytes, see from the 'properties' window) HAS TO follow the 2352 rule (or the 2048 rule, if only data have been extracted). If the image is an .ISO created by EZCD or an .NRG erated by Nero or a .MDS created by Alcohol 120% it will not follow any rule. (Alcohol's could be divided by 2448, though).

I did not understand fully your post. Did you open the image (on the HD) or the CD (burned, coaster) with Isobuster? If Isobuster opens the image and shows just a 'Track1' of 716,920 kbytes (without a directory sub-structure) then you're in trouble. Maybe it's a EZCD or a Nero image. Maybe is the image of a coaster.

CDMage could manage open the image for you, it supports more types (try different image types...). I yould avoid doing experiments untill you understand which type of software was used to build that image, though. If you want to waste CDs you might want to test Nero or EZCD.

 

Hey.. ello.

ok, i have 3 CUE's and 3 BIN's.. (3 cd's) on my desktop. I am used to ISO's.
I have installed Nero,

I have started Nero and:

1. exit the wizard when it comes up.
2. click file, then burn image.
3. where it says "files of type: Image Files: *.nrg;*.iso", click on the down arrow and select "all files *.*"
4. now select the .cue file

i choose the .CUE, chose "open"/write/ok/ then it pops up and wants me to save image file as a .NRG

so.. again.. im used to just plain old iso's (added the XP "fix" for them in xp)

and used to CCD as in Clone.. but i do not know how to make these 3 items CD's..

any help would be gravyy... thnks.

 

nm, i have discovrd cdrwin... nero is gay

 

Nero works well with BINs only from version 5.5.? (5.5.9 is OK, dunno previous) or above.

CDRWin is definitely simpler for burning CUEs. But if you try to register it with illegal codes, you'll burn coasters 99% of the time.

 

For the simplicity of use, you can start the Nero Express, an alternative wizard-GUI, which is quite snappy in image burning.

 

I have read everywhere how to burn bin/cue files with Nero but it never works...
It says that I should choose burn image then choose the .cue file and press open and then write it to the cd but it doesnt work.
It never says how to put the .bin file on the cd....

I may seem stupid asking this because it seems like its working for everyone except me...
Please give me a fully detailed manual how to do it.

 

Did you look at the tutorial?
http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/20980
you need at Nero v. 5.5.9.9 or above to use it, though. If you have an older version of Nero you have to open directly the image file (File--->Burn Image--->Open *.* , load the image file and select 'RAW DATA 2352' during data import screen.

The .CUE loads the .BIN automatically. When you burn, you burn the .BIN formatted according to the .CUE info. Please note that if the .CUE has a wrong FILE path writen on it (open it with notepad and check) you have to modify it.

For instance, if your .CUE is:

FILE "F:\temp\gamedir\name-of-the-image.bin" BINARY
TRACK 01 MODE1/2352
INDEX 01 00:00:00

but you have no such directory, you just have to edit the .CUE file to:

FILE "name-of-the-image.bin" BINARY
TRACK 01 MODE1/2352
INDEX 01 00:00:00

and save it to the same directory of the image file. Please note that the image does not need to have a .bin extension. The image file could be named 'game.iso.exe' or 'image.iso' and in this case you have to modify the name written on the FILE " " accordingly.

 

I have an ISO file that I want to run from my hard drive, not burn to CDR (which is broken). Do I have to convert the ISO to BIN/CUE first? How do I do this? Thanks in advance.

 

Mount it on a Virtual Drive unit (with Alcohol 120%, for instance)

 

OK, pretend you're talking to a 2-year old here. Can I download Alcohol 120% for free somewhere?

I'm not familiar with the term "Virtual Drive." Am I using Alcohol 120% to fool my computer into thinking I have a CDR drive on my hard drive?

 

i have never made a toaster. and i do not buy software.. unless is from "i.d."

cdrwin own3z.

 

You can find a link for Alcohol at page 1 of this thread.
If you install it, it will add a 'fake' drive (e.g. Unit F: , if you have a CD-ROM drive on D: and a burner in E.

Once installed Alcoohl, you run it. Then, you have to right-click on the virtual unit, choose 'Mount Image' and load an image that is located on your hard disk (many formats are supported: .ISO, .CUE/.BIN, .CCD/.IMG/.SUB. and so on).

The result emulates a fully burned CD on unit E: that can be read at 200x (!) speed . More than that, if you choose the proper options, you can emulate many protections features such ad bad blocks and so on.

 

Hey guys, first I just wanna say thanks, after reading all this, it really helped my knowledge of iso's and bin/cues.
But im having some problems, and i apologize if they are nothing much, because I guess im still in the noobish stages of this.
But im trying to burn a game, but before i am i tried mounting it first using Alchohol, and that works fine, but on installing i get the message "An error has occured during the move data process: -117" I guessed that it's probably just some random error on the bin file, but i've downloaded it several times, and it is a legit bin. So im not sure what to try next, but im guessing that it having a Safedisc2 protection might be an issue, so using alchohol, does it automatically bypass safedisc2 or is there something i need to do first? Thanks for the site guys, really helps a lot.
Zaar

 

So I'm back with some updates to my quest.
I tried several different configurations using RAW DAO, RAW SAO, SAO/DAO, with safedisc, safedisc2, normal cd, rectifying sub-channel data (Not sure that I have it) and they all turned out CD's that are unreadable to Windows but have the data for ISObuster to read.
Just to test out the integrity of the .bin I used ISObuster to extract each file one at a time to a partition on the HD.
After completely extracting all files from both .bin's, I attempted to install the game.
The install was successful. A couple of options call for the CD in the CD-ROM which I obviously couldn't do as there was no CD, but the game was playable. (Just not able to play on-line, dammit)
So I used EZ-CD creator to burn each of the extracted files to 2 CDs.(with all from .bin 1 on the first & all from .bin 2 on the second.)
The CD's are now readable by Windows but I still couldn't get them recognised by the game.
Then I thought that maybe the install of the game used a serial number read from the CD (or in my case the HD) as a means of checking for the proper CD. So I then uninstalled the game(as it was still the version installed from the HD extracted files) and then re-installed it from the CD's.
The install process went like clockwork. I used a keygen and then installed the supplied crack and the game works fine as far as I can tell. Whenever the CD is called for I use the ones from the install and it seems to work. (I still can't play on-line yet but I think that has more to do with having the IPX/SPX protocols uninstalled at this time.)
So this process worked for this file as a work-around, but I still would like to know about properly burning .bin /.cue files. This was primarily an exercise for educational purposes, and while I have picked up a great deal, I still haven't mastered it yet.
As Aldaco12 indicated (in thread http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/23587), Alcohol 120% may not properly identify whether my LG burner can burn RAW DAO. He says that he burned coasters even when Alcohol claimed to have written succesfully. I guess I need to know the definition of coasters in this instance. For example, all my attempts burned data to the CD's but only ISObuster could access the data. I consider them to be coasters because of the extremely limited accessability, but I did keep 1 copy of each CD as backups just in case. So were his completely unreadable or did he end up with the same ISObuster readable only thing ?
How can you tell if Alcohol 120% is working perfectly or not ? (I'm still learning the software and may be overlooking something.)
As I indicated earlier, Nero doesn't seem to work with my burner, and I really don't like the idea of install another burning software package with the other 2.(EZ-CD Creator Platinum & Alcohol 120%) My limited HD space is being used up fast with virtual images, original .bin files, installs, burner software, etc. to say nothing of the other stuff that allready was on the machine to begin with. My weekly Defrag took a little more than 12 hours.
So what would be the next step to take for burning .bin / .cue files ?
Is there a quick way of testing Alcohol 120% to see if I can actually burn RAW DAO ?
I am currently downloading a 3 CD set of .bin files and will have some more examples to work with soon. Hopefully, with some more help, I will figure it all out.

 

Hi people,
OK i'm fine with pretty much all of the procedure that you've mentioned, but I have a small problem at the start which messes up my whole thing. I dont know how to edit the data in notepad, right at the beginning. Im not sure how to open up the BIN data with notepad, can someone tell me exactly how to do this. Sorry if this sounds stupid. Thanks

 

To Zaar: never heard of error 117. But since 'mounted' images cannot be deleted or modified, might it be that you tried to delete/move some files in the virtual drive?
To check for errors in the .BIN use CDMage.
BTW, to burn successfully Safedisc2 you have to choose 'Datatype: Safedsc 2' in burn image withard settings as told in the Guide).

To InCanada: Coaster is a completely unreadable disk. It seems blank but it has been burned (you can see looking at its layer). If opened with Isobuster, the coaster just shows a 'Track 01' with no files/folders structure.
I had a disk readable by Isobuster but not by Windows only once. I burned MODE2 instead of MODE1. But I don't think this is the case. Maybe the burner can dear it but the CD-ROM unit cannot? Did you try this?
More in general: EZCD sucks and 99% times it conficts with all other burning software. And it cannot burn protected CDs, so if the original CDs were protected you should need to burn the images with proper write settings (depending on the protection you have, read the 'Backup protected CD' thread on the main page to learn about that).

Testing Alcohol RAW-DAO capability is simple. Burn a single file on a CD-RW (use EZCD). Check that the CD is good i.e. you can see and access the file on the CD. Then use Alcohol to extract the CD image (reading Subchannel, use Datatype : 'SecuROM' or 'General Protected CD'); burn back the image on another CD-RW using the same settings (verify tht RAW DAO is selected). It will take a couple of minutes and if you cannot access the file on the new CD then you're not caable of burning RAW DAO. Then you can test again RAW SAO 16 and so on until you find a burning mode that does not burn coasters.


To rbarlow: this is the most newbie question of the year, you should be given a prize. BTW: you DO NOT open the .BIN (which is 700+ Megabytes) you MODIFY (if necessary) or CREATE (if missing) a .CUE file (a very very small text file) needed to compile the .BIN image. To do that click Start---->Run---> Notepad (+ OK).
Then:
1) if you have to modify a .CUE you open it (put *.* in the box or Notepad will only show files ending with .txt extension)
2) if you do not have a .CUE you must write it completely.
To write/modify the file you use the keyboard (are you capable to do that?) and then use the menu File--->Save---> "file-name.cue" (use the " " or Notepad will add an extra .txt extension on saving, then renaming it as "file-name.cue.txt"). Save the .CUE file in the same directory of the .BIN file. Got it?

 

Ok
Thanks to everyone thats helpt me to burn .cue files!!!

 

Thanks very much adalco or whatever, Im new to this stuff, as I've just managed to save enough money to buy myself a decent machine, so i'm sure you can excuse my ignorance, Im still learning. Thanks again`