Im wondering if i could perhaps benefit from knowing the answers to these:


1: Under what circumstances would i need the .cue file or similar files that some imaging tools create?

2: What causes some disks only to allow me to create images with nothing but empty files

that occupy zero bytes? (even when nero cd/dvd speed says the disk is in top shape)

(this last one is a Two parter)

3: Some tools like IsoBuster let me record disk images raw. When would this be the desired

method to create the image? And when it encounters errors in this mode

should i replace the "damaged" sectors with "dummy data"

or should i select "replace with erroneous data"?

Y'all are always immeasurably more informative than google

12/5/2005 12:10:16 PM

when you are trying to pirate games and make pirate copy of games.

12/5/2005 12:11:55 PM

oh yeah i forgot to mention that all of this info will be used to pirate games and expensive programs that i could easily afford but choose to steal instead

12/5/2005 12:50:09 PM

1. You never really need the cue files, but they're only like 3k so why not have them
2. Anti-piracy methods
3. Many anti-piracy methods create "damaged" sectors on the disk. When the game goes to check for the cd, it also checks for these sectors. Since many disk copying programs used to ignore the bad sectors and replace them, they would be missing from the disk and the game would say its not the right cd. By including the bad sectors in the disk image, you make a more exact copy of the disk in order to fool the copy protection.

As for which option to choose for filling in the data, that probably depends on the specific copy protection suite. You'd have to research that yourself.

12/5/2005 1:07:48 PM

Disk images are helpful if you don't want to use a CD-R or DVD-R. Say you have a game or something and you would like to back it up (ha, right) but you think you might lose the backup or you just don't have any blank CD's lying around, you can just keep it on your hard drive and A) Burn it to CD later or B) Use Daemon Tools or Alcohol 120% to mount the image.

12/5/2005 1:16:36 PM

Quote :

"1) What is a .BIN? What is a .CUE? What is an .ISO 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. 2) I have download .BIN&.CUE/.ISO files - what to do with them? You can burn them to a CD-R or a CD-RW with: -Alcohol 120% - My favourite, excellent software, easy and yet very advanced (burns ISO, BIN/CUE, CCD, CDI, BWT files!): http://www.afterdawn.com/software/cdr_software/cdr_tools/alcohol1... - BlindWrite - easy to use: http://www.afterdawn.com/software/cdr_software/cdr_applications/b... - FireBurner - also very good, a single .EXE file! http://www.afterdawn.com/software/cdr_software/cdr_applications/f... - BurnAtOnce - A handy and FREE tool for burning .bin/.cue/.iso. Easy to use! http://www.afterdawn.com/software/cdr_software/cdr_applications/b... - Nero - many of you have this, but it can't handle all image files: http://www.afterdawn.com/software/cdr_software/cdr_applications/n... - CDRWin - This is the original BIN/CUE software: http://www.afterdawn.com/software/cdr_software/cdr_applications/c... You can also mount image files as virtual CD-ROM drives using Alcohol - http://www.afterdawn.com/software/cdr_software/cdr_tools/alcohol1... Daemon Tools - http://www.afterdawn.com/software/cdr_software/cdr_tools/daemon_t... There are also several softwares you can use to exploit & manipulate BIN/CUE files in various ways: CDMage - http://www.geocities.com/cdmage/ IsoBuster - http://www.smart-projects.net/isobuster/ 3) I have a .BIN file but no .CUE? .CUE can be made with just Notepad. A typical Playstation(One or 2) .CUE file looks like this: FILE "image-name.BIN" BINARY TRACK 1 MODE2/2352 INDEX 1 00:00:00 A typical PC CD-ROM .CUE looks like this: FILE "image-name.BIN" BINARY TRACK 01 MODE1/2352 INDEX 01 00:00:00 "image-name.BIN" being the name of the image file (IWDII.BIN, CIV3.BIN and so on...) Notice the difference of the track mode - PC-ROMs being Mode 1, Playstations CDs Mode 2 and (Super)Video CDs are also MODE2/2352. 4) How do I make .BIN/.CUE files? CDRWin or the BIN/CUE format is not ideal for distributing. BlindWrite suite and CloneCD perform a lot better in this purpose and can also handle various copy protections. Both of these softwares can also create .CUE files for increased compatibility 5) I have a .BIN & .CUE, but my CD writing software can't locate the .BIN file? Edit the .CUE file with Notepad (or similar) and verify that the FILE "C:\path\image.bin" matches the location of your image file 6) My image file is IMAGE.BIN.EXE and I can't rename it! Read here http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/23982 7) Sector sizes of CD image files (by Aldaco12) When you talk about images must think on SECTORS not on DATA SIZE. The rules are: 1)A standard 74 min CD is made by 333,000 sectors. 2) Each sector is 2352 bytes big, and contains 2048 bytes of PC (MODE1)Data, 2336 bytes of PSX/VCD (MODE2) Data or 2352 bytes of AUDIO. 3) The difference between secor size and data content are the Headers info and the Error Correction Codes, that are big for Data (high precision required), small for VCD (standard for video) and none for audio. 4)If you extract data in RAW format (standard for creating images) you always extract 2352 bytes per sector, not 2048/2336/2352 bytes depending on data type (basically, you extract the whole sector). This fact has two main consequences: a) You can record data at very high speed (40x) without losing information, but if you try to do the same with PSX or Audio you get unredable CD (for PSX) od audio CD with lots of clicks because there are not error correction codes (and error are more likely to occur if you record at high speed. b) On a 74 min CD you can fit very large RAW images,up to 333,000 x 2352 = 783,216,000 bytes (747 Mb). This should be the upper limit for a RAW image created from a 74 min CD. Remember that if you store standard data (backup files), you can burn only 333,000 x 2048 = 681,984,000 bytes (the well known 650 MB limit). Please note that an image size is ALWAYS a multple of 2352 bytes (you extract SECTORS), if extracted in RAW mode. "

12/5/2005 1:50:35 PM

so a .cue contains information that cannot be found inside of the image file itself . ok.. would the program i use to burn with (whatever it may be) need to be directed to the .cue, or would it more likely matter only that the file is in the correct directory relative to the .bin,.nrg,.iso ect...

12/5/2005 4:01:41 PM

If you have a .bin and the correct .cue file, and you wanted to burn the image to a disc using nero, you would direct it to the .cue file.


Make sure the .bin and .cue file are in the same folder/directory.

.nrg/.iso files are standalone. The dont need the .cue file because the information is already included in the file.


If you had a .bin without a .cue, you have two choices:

1. Convert the .bin to an .ISO/.NRG
2. Create a .cue file from scratch.





We done here?

12/5/2005 4:21:17 PM

Quote :

"If you had a .bin without a .cue, you have twothree choices: 1. Convert the .bin to an .ISO/.NRG 2. Create a .cue file from scratch. 3. Just open the .bin in your burning software. (99% of them are smart enough to figure it out without the .cue) "

12/5/2005 4:26:05 PM

so basicly its a file that says "Not me dipshit. Click the file next to me ok"

12/5/2005 7:16:15 PM