Bin is an image format, that is commonly used on the Internet. It is usually accompanied by a cue file of the same name that has instructions on how to burn or mount the image properly. Most CD and DVD burning programs support Bin and Cue files, and one valid option is to burn the file to CD or DVD to access the files. It is on the other hand not a straightforward solution. A free burning software is ImgBurn that supports those files.

Another possibility is to mount the bin file on the system, which basically emulates the CD burning. Free tools that can mount bin files are OSFMount, Virtual Clone Drive or WinCD Emu

If you just want to extract the bin file on your PC, you can use a free archiving software that supports the extraction. One of the programs that is capable of that is IZArc, which I first reviewed in 2007 here on Ghacks Technology News.

IZArc supports a wide variety of archiving and CD/DVD imaging formats, including the Bin format. The program adds context menu entries to the Windows Explorer right-click menu by default, which you can use to extract the Bin files after installation.

Just right-click the bin file in question and select IZArc > Extract Here to extract the file and folder structure to the current directory. You can alternatively open the Bin file in IZArc which is probably the better option if you just need a file from the image and not all files.

The original bin file will be left untouched if you opt to extract it to the computer. The same is true if you open it in the program, but be aware that the changes that you make there might alter the file permanently (for instance if you decide to delete a file).

Is there another method to extract Bin files that I have forgotten to mention? Let me know in the comments.

ISO Workshop is a free software for the Windows operating system that supports all of those tasks. The program displays options to extract, backup, convert or burn in the main interface after installation.

Users should pay close attention to the installation as it includes pre-selected options to install the ASK toolbar on the system. Lets take a closer look at the program’s features:

Extract – The operation that is most likely already available on the system. Packers and archiving software can often unpack iso images as well. ISO images are extracted with ISO Workshop in the following way. It begins with the selection of a locally stored ISO image. A click on Extract extracts the image and copies he files and folders to the same directory. There does not seem to be an option to change the target directory for the extraction.

Backup – Can create a backup from discs that are inserted into optical drives. The program supports the creation of CD, DVD and Blu-Ray ISO images. It is however not clear if it can backup copy protected discs or only unprotected discs.

The process is straightforward. The user needs to insert the disc into the drive, select an output directory and the backup button in the end. The program takes care of the rest.

Convert – Offers options to convert image formats to ISO or BIN. The program supports a wide variety of image formats including nrg, img, mdf, dmg or cdi. Images that need to be converted are selected via the built-in file browser. The name of the destination image is automatically added in the process. It is still possible to make changes to that name or select a different target directory on the computer, if necessary. A click on convert starts the conversion. A conversion of a test disk format from ISO to Bin took less than 3 minutes to complete. The actual speed may differ depending on the size of the disc image and the speed of the PC.

Burn – Burn should be self explanatory. The disc image needs to be selected first via the file browser. It is then possible to select one of the CD, DVD or Blu-Ray burners to burn the image to disc. The program supports disc verification and test writes.

ISO Workshop offers access to several ISO-related tasks. Especially the ability to convert pretty much every other popular disc image format to ISO could be handy for users who sometimes have to work with disc formats that they cannot burn or make use of without conversion or software installation.

The software program is free for personal and commercial use. Downloads are provided at the developer website over at Glorylogic.

The problem with bin formats is that they rely on cue files that tell the burning software how to burn the CD or DVD image to disc. If the cue file is missing the applications cannot find those information and refuse to burn the disc image.

WinBin2Iso is a tiny 43 Kilobyte application that can convert bin images without cue file to iso images which can be burned normally. Another option is Bin2Iso which has a size of only 12 Kilobyte and provides the same functionality.

Both applications convert the bin file to an iso file quickly. It usually does not take longer than a few minute to convert a full DVD image from bin to iso.

All formats can be burned to CDs or DVDs depending on their size using a DVD burning software like Nero for instance. Another method favorited by many is to mount those images as a virtual drive. This lets the user access the contents on the CD or DVD without burning it first.

Pretty good if you just need to install something or watch a movie that was distributed as a bin, cue, img or iso file. Several softwares exist that can mount those filetypes, one is named Daemon Tools for instance.

You would simply create a virtual drive in Daemon Tools, browse to the location of the image file on your hard drive and select it from there. Daemon Tools will do the rest and make the contents available for further use.

This is an excellent way to store CDs and DVDs on your computer. Great if you are traveling and do not want to take the original discs with you or to save power when using a notebook. It essentially means that you do not need to use the installed CD or DVD drive which saves the power.

Microsoft is offering a free unsupported software as well that is able to mount those files if you are using Windows XP.

Read More:

Microsoft Win XP Virtual CD Control Panel