A .bin and .cue files are a "raw" CD-ROM format, with all the "extra" information between the sectors (without going into too much detail). The .bin file contains all the tracks (1 or more), and the .cue file tells how the .bin file is laid out. The .cue file is a text file, and you may need to edit the dos filenames contained in it. The .bin and .cue files can be generated with cdrdao for Linux, or cdrwin for windows. If you have a "copy protected" CD, A CD with more than 1 track, or a CD with audio tracks, then a bin/cue is probably the best image type.

iso is short for ISO9660, which defines the layout of a "standard". cdrom. Most .iso images are really an extension to ISO9660, like Rock Ridge, Romeo, Joliet. (Romeo, and Joliet are microslop extension to ISO9660, Romeo is 128 character file names, all upper(or lower)case, and Joliet is 64 character "unicode" (double byte) filenames.) Rock Ridge is an extension to ISO9660 to make it more "unix friendly", which includes, permissions, ownership, and case sensitive "long" filenames.

In most cases an .iso is better because it is smaller, but if you have a copy-protected CD, or a CD with more than 1 track, then you'll most likely have to use a bin/cue format.

There is a program called binchunker (the executeable is called bchunk). Sometimes you'll run into a bin/cue that won't convert into an .iso properly (like the 2nd CD for Kylix, and I have a patch to fix that. If you run into a bin/cue that is 2048 bytes per sector, then you can treat that .bin just like an .iso.

# How do I make a bin/cue image? cdrdao copy —source-device 0,3,0 —speed 24 toc-name

# How do I burn a bin/cue image to a CD-ROM? cdrdao write —device 0,3,0 —speed 8 filename.cue If this don't work, then you'll need to read the docs that came with cdrdao.

documented on: 2004.04.07