Entrepreneur Geek

I got .bin and .cue files from a friend. And was wondering how to use them on my Mac.

What are .bin and .cue files?

They are essentially CD/DVD image files. The .BIN / .CUE CD image format was made popular by the CDRWin software. Afterwards many programs have started supporting or partially supporting it, including: Nero, Blindwrite, CloneCD, FireBurner. The .CUE file contains the track layout information, while the .BIN file holds the actual data.

.ISO is also a CD image format, but is sometimes used for 'ISO9660 format' (standard, recognized by all applications) and sometimes for unique Easy CD ISO format.

So how can you open them on a Mac OS X?

Apple's DiskUtility does not support these formats. Roxio Toast or other CD burning software can open and burn from .bin+.cue files. But if you don't want to do all that, there is an easy way!

Use the bchunker command line program! You can download a Mac compiled version from James Sears' site and run a command like this to get an ISO file. This ISO file can now be easily mounted by DiskUtility.

Resources:

• .bin / .cue / .iso Frequently Asked Questions
• How to play bin and cue files?
• bchunker on Mac OS X

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