How do I Open or Mount a Bin File Without a Cue File?

Contributed by David Kirk

Tagged: Windows

You downloaded a CD image in a bin format. However, nothing will read it. Most software for mounting or burning the bin file requires a cue file and this describes how to create one.

You just downloaded the latest, baddest program from some torrent somewhere. However, it’s just a bunch of bin files. You realize these are CD images or ISOs, but you don’t know how to run them. The missing cue file is the key to your troubles.

You just create a text file that is named the exact same thing as your bin file except with a cue extension. In this text file you need this information:

Here are the step-by-step directions:

For example, we’ll start with an example file called gameiso.bin.

1. Right click on a blank space in the same folder
2. Select new text document
3. Double click to open your New Text Document.txt
4. Paste this into the file:
FILE "gameiso.bin" BINARY TRACK 01 MODE1/2352 INDEX 01 00:00:00

Make sure you edit the text gameiso.bin to the exact name of your bin file.

5. Click File menu
6. Click Save
7. Click the Red X to close it
8. Right click the New Text Document.txt and select Rename
9. Rename it like your bin file except with a cue extension:
gameiso.cue
10. Now any program that can read CD-rom ISOs (nero, alcohol, etc) should be ready to read the file.

If you have problems, you may have not changed the extension on the cue file correctly. Be sure to show your file extensions to make sure you have actually changed it to .cue file.

100 Comments -

KAI said on October 1, 2008

why do [list]
KAI said on October 1, 2008

i dont get why u put [list]
davak said on October 1, 2008

The [list] text was a typo. Thanks for pointing it out. The tutorial has been updated.
nono said on October 4, 2008

Sometimes what it takes is to rename from name.bin to name.iso and no amount of .cue knowledge will help.
dsfsd said on October 13, 2008

u can also extract the bin using win rar then create another image using magic iso
fsd said on October 17, 2008

Yes it works for .bin files!!!

Thanks alot
mithu said on October 17, 2008

thank-u-so-much
it-works
zappo23 said on October 25, 2008

Easy way to do it. DON’T rename the file AFTER you save it. When you go to save it, simply save it as .cue and it will work. I’ve done this several times and it has not failed me once. This is how I saved it.
*.txt >>> /you see this in the save box
Delete that and insert “gameiso.cue”
Save it, and you have your new image file.
chelsea the best said on November 11, 2008

that’s not working i tryied to install emergency 4 wich has a bin file and it didn’t work
hhh said on December 29, 2008

Kick ass dude , i didnt knew it was this simple.
Anonymous said on January 9, 2009

You are a life saver, Thanks
Keikaku said on January 9, 2009

Honestly, if you’re using Daemon Tools, you can just mount the BIN file~
No need for a CUE.
time2retire said on January 10, 2009

Thank you.
francisco said on January 10, 2009

great solution, congratulations!!
Smiffy said on January 16, 2009

in control panel – folder options make sure u have unslected hide file exstentions etc……
hytham said on January 20, 2009

thank you
thank you
thank you
:-)
after i download 4.5 giga
it was a BIN file which did not open
i look on the net
nothing
until i found this
and it worked
thank you
thank you
thank you
Ax said on January 25, 2009

open notepad Write all that he says then Save as Gameiso.cue
BUT REMEMBER THE OPTION UNDER THE NAME, TO SAVE IT AS ALL FILES NOT AS .txt
AS .CUE
miki [ro] said on February 8, 2009

at ” FILE “yourbinfilenamehere.bin” BINARY
TRACK 01 MODE1/2352
INDEX 01 00:00:00 ” please remove the ” ” from “yourbinfilenamehere.bin” . some peoples can include the ” ” in the text file and with them doesn’t work.
crax said on February 9, 2009

THANKS YOU SO MUCH!!! :D
rizz said on February 16, 2009

didnt work, it named my file playboymansion-1.cue.txt
rizz said on February 16, 2009

saved it as all types, playboymansion-1.cue, but mounting it just freezes my pc, thanks for the bullshit post.
sadf said on February 24, 2009

do in ANSI it will work
Thank you said on March 6, 2009

wow, you are amazing thanks :D:D:D:D:D
Mel slade said on March 20, 2009

Thank you so much this worked a treat. Thank you thank you thank you.
B said on March 27, 2009

Putting .cue doesn’t actually change the file type. Therefore Daemon tools won’t read it. Is there some way to change the actual file type?
B said on March 27, 2009

NVM, I went into my control panel and un-hid file types so I could really change it to .cue instead of of just naming it .cue.txt ;) works great. Thank you!
Ryan said on April 16, 2009

If you have Daemon tools installed you can just mount the .bin. Change file type to “all files” so you see the .bin and double click it, it will mount.
anonymko said on April 19, 2009

thx very much, dude…
adeev said on April 20, 2009

thanks u brother
anik said on May 7, 2009

thank you very much………………….it works……………………..:D
anonumous said on May 9, 2009

thanx man , u rock
Leishtek said on May 21, 2009

sorry, but NOT all bin/cue files will have a single mode. so data CDs, for instance, will have multiple lines because the image MUST be written to certain sectors. This is because of copy protection! Keep that in mind. Look up cue on ‘wikipedia.org’ site.
Charter said on May 28, 2009

If I have renamed my bin file and forgot the original name can this be done by matching both files name or I need to find the original name of my bin file to fit with my .cue text document ? =/
Francis said on June 3, 2009

Hey you a hell of a good taught. May god bless you with more for us
MIKE.UA said on June 3, 2009

Thanks a lot, its work ;)
X32WaysToDie said on June 6, 2009

lol well i downloaded civcity rome… and you dont even have to do any of this… lol i just used daemon tools, and the window that youre using from daemon tools has a little drop down bar in the lower right corner asking which files to display, well just click that and change it to all files or whatever it says, then when you see the bin file just double click it and it works. lol thanks to whoever originally put this on here, but it didnt work for me, so i experimented and found that you dont evn have to go through this lol
guest said on June 9, 2009

great thanks
Moiz said on June 13, 2009

This was extremely helpful. Thanks!
Efras said on June 17, 2009

this is in case your missing your cue file….dudes!!! and it willl WORK
andy said on July 7, 2009

this method works perfect for me, thanks people
Anonymous said on July 29, 2009

If you have problems do like said above remove the “tags”.

Thank you very much! Good job!

to save as cue file just open file, press save as then change “save as .txt file” to “save as all filetypes”

Then it should work even on vista!

Good luck all and Thank you!
Anonymous said on October 14, 2009

worked great for me. thanks. Great tip for the future.
Name said on October 29, 2009

Thanks.
Anonymous said on November 2, 2009

great help. works like a charm
Anonymous said on November 6, 2009

Thank you! :)
Anonymous said on November 6, 2009

Thank you! :)
Anonymous said on November 7, 2009

Thanks so much. You’re a great help.
Anonymous said on November 7, 2009

I tried doing thist it didnt work for me….
I have windows 7…And Nero 7..
Anonymous said on November 24, 2009

lol:))…thx help me a lot
Shiju David said on January 25, 2010

i cant open bin files
Anonymous said on March 11, 2010

Thanks a lot TECH-RECIPES !

thanks for the guidance, It worked and now I can view n use all my files of .BIN and .CU files.

Regards,

KS
Anonymous said on March 29, 2010

Yo, this works only if you go “Save as” and name it immediately. It didn’t work for me when I tried to rename it after saving text document.
Anonymous said on April 6, 2010

Hi, I have a .bin file and follow your way to create a .cue file but it wont work when I try to burn it. The error message is : There is not enough space to burn this compilation onto this disc. Data to be written 0 MB ( 307,200 bytes )
Space available on the disc 656 MB (688,281,600 bytes ). Kindly help me to solve this problem. Thks
Anonymous said on April 10, 2010

thank you it worked for me
anonymous34 said on April 16, 2010

you dont save it as a .txt you just change the bar from text format to all files
Anonymous said on May 15, 2010

I did all of the steps but it didnt show up on Daemon tools. so i manually typed it in the Daemon tools search-bar and that found it :D try that if your isnt working! thanks a lot
dirgible said on May 18, 2010

In folder settings, you’ve got to unclick ‘hide known extention types’. What you’re doing is making a file called TCNYC CD1.cue.txt, what you want to do is change the actual type.
IT Geek said on May 18, 2010

Fantastic!. you are a genius. Works like a charm. I owe you a drink.
ARandomGuy said on May 26, 2010

Thanks :>
ARandomGuy said on May 26, 2010

Thanks a lot :>
Max said on May 27, 2010

works like a charm.
vicky nathan said on May 28, 2010

wow it works ,easy way friend thanks a lot .
corb said on June 8, 2010

which file do i mount after i created the cue file?
Ray_randall_07 said on June 13, 2010

OMFG Thank you for showing me that, I just re-downloaded diablo 2 and the disk 2 in the torrent didn’t work. the person had the binary mistyped haha
|/00!33r|/|4|/ said on June 13, 2010

amazing trick but maybe it doesnt works for me cause i dont know english :P
Lagoonav said on July 2, 2010

Windows 7 you have to ddisable hide extensions then go back and get rid of teh .txt on teh end of the file
Farrukh said on July 13, 2010

I do highly appreciate your guideline in the making cue file of bin file.

Regards,

Your well wisher

Farrukh
trugg said on July 28, 2010

The other day I downloaded OmniPage pro17. When I opened the .rar file, it contained 30 or 31 .rar files. Knowing nothing about .bin or .cue files and just experimenting, I unrared the .r00 file to my desktop. There was a .bin and .cue file. The .cue said it was 1k so I mounted the .bin file with Magic Disk which popped up a box which said Run Autorun.exe or Open folder to view files. I opened the folder and ran Setup.exe and it installed perfectly. I guess I just lucked out. Next time I will follow your instructions as I just love learning something new. Thank you!
Mister_kupido09 said on August 6, 2010

ayee.. nice dude it works.! i’m not other stupid HERE that can’t follow! thanks by the way!
Guest said on August 12, 2010

excellent post…it works!!!!!!!!!
Sal said on August 14, 2010

worked great, thanks
Shado said on August 20, 2010

Thanks! Now I know how to make cue files…
Warchild said on August 25, 2010

Thnx a lot brother it really works…i dunno it won’t work work for others but it does for me

thnx….rep up brotha… :) :) :)
Sasdas said on September 5, 2010

wow, it worked. thanks!
Nakul said on September 29, 2010

great!works successfully
Rkbal24 said on October 3, 2010

Cool mate. Its working. Thanks a ton
Wulf said on October 28, 2010

thanks heaps
Noname said on November 1, 2010

thanks man ,, it works,,, you are awesome!!
Desperator007 said on November 16, 2010

zappo u r the king. but tell since this is an expansion pack it is necessary to have cod1 installed in the system first
Desperator007 said on November 16, 2010

what you told has worked and ultra iso is reading the images. but plz tell me that is it necessary to have COD1 installed in the system first to make the expansion pack run??
Flopo79 said on December 16, 2010

thank youuuu
Ajit said on January 8, 2011

this works perfect
thanks a lot
T King0517 said on February 2, 2011

this was great thanks!
MadDog said on February 6, 2011

how do you know what the binary is? or do you leave exactly as it is written here?
Fadfzd said on February 18, 2011

worked like a charm for me, with a random torchlight game download.
James_obscure said on February 20, 2011

yeah i’ve got same download, but i don’t understand what “Mount”
torchlight.bin means…

iunno if thats the installtion file of or something or whats it ment to do. can you help me :O
Hiruko53 said on February 20, 2011

If it’s the one from Piratebay by fucteduppunk then I got it too and this didn’t help me either.
Daniel Ruben du Prie said on March 1, 2011

There’s an easier way, if you know what kind of file it is then rename it with its appropriate extension. For example if the *.bin file is an image of a music CD then rename the file *.wav and you’ll be able to play it in any MP3 or media player.
Anonymous said on March 1, 2011

hmmmm…. no.
Royalwizkid said on March 3, 2011

@AlexTheBeast….you’re also AlexTheBest… Thanks a lot buddy for ths valuable post
Thecageyone said on April 11, 2011

Worked a treat for the Torchlight torrent I grabbed from TPB.

Create the text file, untick ‘hide known extension types’ as stated above, rename the text file to ‘Torchlight.cue’ and it mounts no problem. Oh, and mount the .cue file not the .bin :)
CD said on September 1, 2011

Thanks Man! You are a genius! :)
thankyou said on September 5, 2011

thank you :)
name said on October 13, 2011

Not working. I have downloaded two big .bin files (2Gb each). Daemon Tools says: “Unable to mount image. File not accessible.”
miceland said on October 13, 2011

worked like a charm. Good instructions .
thanks
antiskullz said on December 18, 2011

worked !!!
thanks !! is so simple :D
TheMan said on December 30, 2011

I thought I was the man! You have but taken my thrown my friend
Sedentarius said on December 31, 2011

Thank you! :D
Da Miz said on January 1, 2012

Okay here what i do:

Now i saved the TEXT NOTEPAD as a CUE file then i mount it then it said ” Cannot read file please re-download it or get a new one ” I mount it using MagicIso then after that 2 hrs later it worked so i play my game (Praetorians) then i click it 2x then i wait 5 seconds then it said ” Cannot read file please re-download it or get a new one ” WTF is going on? WAT IS GOING ON?
dimitri said on January 4, 2012

im eternally gratefull.. hope to finish d game… :P

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How do I Open or Mount a Bin File Without a Cue File?

You downloaded a CD image in a bin format. However, nothing will read it. Most software for mounting or burning the bin file requires a cue file and this describes how to create one.

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