Convert .bin/.cue to .iso on Mac OSX

NOTE: This is not a Universal Binary, It was built for Intel Macs.

While setting up a new VMWare image I found myself needing to convert an old .bin/.cue disk backup to iso format. Looking for a simple command line utility I came across BinChunker, a GPL-licensed *nix source that fit the bill to the tee. The official site has the source code and RedHat RPM’s but nothing for OS X.

A quick compile took care of that — BinChunker for OS X.

Download the utility, extract it to your Home directory and issue the following command from a shell prompt:

sudo cp bchunk /usr/bin/

To make sure your newly installed utility has the correct execute permissions and that its accessible to you through the terminal, run this code:

sudo chmod a+x /usr/bin/bchunk

To convert a .bin/.cue pair to a .iso, you can issue this command:

bchunk myinputfile.bin myinputfile.cue myoutputfile

If you are getting a not found error, make sure that /usr/bin/ is in your path. To check this, type echo $PATH and look for /usr/bin/ in the result. If it isn’t there, type sudo nano /etc/profile and add /usr/bin; to the PATH=… line. Then press CTRL+x followed by Y to confirm and the enter key to verify the filename to save and exit nano. Then execute source /etc/profile to refresh the path.

33 Comments so far

  1. Don on October 22nd, 2007

    For those of you who have a .bin file but instead of a .cue file have a .toc file, there is a utility for mac called toc2cue that you can get if you run macports and install the cdrdao port. Then you can convert over to .cue file and use this fine tool to convert your .bin file to .iso

  2. renderdman on October 22nd, 2007

    i found errors with said binary, and learned that bchunk is also available from mac ports (or darwin ports for the old school) which works fine

  3. francis mahon on October 24th, 2007

    This is awesome! I had a couple of old .BIN/.CUE files, and am delighted to have them natively on disk now, instead of having to mess around with VLC – now I should be able to watch them in my DVD player?

    Fran

  4. Mark Quitoriano on January 20th, 2008

    Thanks for the Howto. And yes there’s bchunk in mac ports :D i love mac ports :D

  5. [...] and play it using psx4all emulator. So i ask google how to convert this :D . And this guy name Gavin posted in his blog a real nice howto. Yes it’s nice because he uses an opensource apps that [...]

  6. ianbhak on January 28th, 2008

    wow!! so great!!!

  7. [...] 설명서는 BinChunker for OS X info [...]

  8. Chefbrenner on February 27th, 2008

    Thanks a lot! A quick and easy solution.

  9. Robert Liljedahl on March 7th, 2008

    Worked great. Thanks alot!

  10. tony on June 16th, 2008

    Hi,

    I tried this using the BinChunker linked here but I keep getting a “cannot execute binary file” error. Any idea why? Is it possible this is configured for a different version of OSX? I’m running Tiger (10.4.10) on an old Powerbook G4 (PowerPC). Any advice you might have would be much appreciated.

    Oh, I also tried installing MacPorts and doing it that way, but the install failed when it couldn’t find “make”, which was odd.

  11. gavin.mclelland on June 16th, 2008

    @ Tony

    The build of this code was done on 10.4.x on a 1st generation MacBook Pro (Intel). I did not make a Universal binary as I don’t have a PowerPC Mac. By the error message your getting I would think that is where the problem is. The MacPorts version should work for you if you can get it running.

    As for not finding “make”. If the error your receiving looks something like this”/bin/bash: line 1: make: command not found”. This error is returned because the “make” utility is not installed on your Mac OS X machine. To install the “make” utility, download the Xcode software package from Apple.

    Xcode can be downloaded from the following URL:
    http://developer.apple.com/tools/download/

  12. T-REV on June 27th, 2008

    Use toast titanium, throw .cue file onto it and write the disk. It will extract the .bin file and produce a disk with all the original folders, files etc…real easy solution, try it:)

  13. aylk on July 3rd, 2008

    You can also download a GUI for BinChunker here: http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/27240/bchunkerfe . Worked flawlessly, thanks!

  14. BchunkerFE : IfreeDown on July 21st, 2008

    [...] richiede lo strumento Binchunker  per poter lavorare al meglio, lo trovate qui. BchunkerFE Downloads: not [...]

  15. Tom on August 23rd, 2008

    Since I didn’t want to buy (or steal, before you mention it) Toast, I was happy to find bchunk. Screw T-REV.

  16. spydenator on September 11th, 2008

    KILLER! wow.

  17. Morgan on January 29th, 2009

    Amazing. Thank you so much, it’s nice to see there are still people out there who believe in FOSS for the Mac.

  18. Arthur on February 14th, 2009

    Thanks! Works without a problem on 10.5.6. You also don’t have to put it in /usr/bin – just executing it with “./bchunk foo.bin foo.cue foo.out” from the Downloads folder was sufficient.

  19. guineves on March 4th, 2009

    perfect!!!!
    right now i’m installing a game in ISO!!!! not in bin/cue =D

    Thank youuu!

  20. mf on March 7th, 2009

    thanks for posting this; it really helped me.

  21. Andy on March 9th, 2009

    Awesome – thanks heaps. This was the solution to a 2-day long problem!

  22. anon on June 28th, 2009

    Thanks this was the most helpful thing I have stumble across in weeks!

  23. Maru on July 25th, 2009

    It worked! Thank you very much for sharing!!!

  24. Dave on July 31st, 2009

    Many thanks! Got me out of a hole.

  25. [...] de website van Gavin vind je de instructies waar je BinChunker kan downloaden en hoe je deze kan installeren [...]

  26. Alex on August 30th, 2009

    Super Puper!! Works fast and great, nice job!

  27. JasonBorn on August 30th, 2009

    Awesome tool. Excellent job

  28. Alex on September 7th, 2009

    Why do my files get named .ugh? I rename them to .iso but they don’t open. OS 10.5.8

  29. Gavin McLelland on September 8th, 2009

    Tracks with unrecognized mode/block size are saved with extension ‘.ugh’. Although these files are not exactly .iso compatible files I have found that the can still be burned/mounted using Toast.

  30. jhon on September 10th, 2009

    Thanks a lot, it worked perfect

  31. fabuch on September 16th, 2009

    Exelent!!! Great Aport! Thank!!!

  32. Gareth on September 27th, 2009

    ‘.ugh’ – best file extension ever :)

    Thanks for making a native binary for binchunker, worked a treat for me.

    Kind regards,
    Gareth

  33. PAZ on November 26th, 2009

    Hi all,

    I’ve had a strange issue that I can’t seem to find any info in all my searching on the net, in forums and blogs.

    Many rare albums I have discovered, when assembled with Unrar, give me a .cue file and a FLAC file (or a .cue file and a .wav file for a DTS track), but no .bin file anywhere. In fact, I have yet to come across one package that included a bin file. Yet without this elusive bin file I’m unable to use the .cue file in Toast. Am I missing something here? Is the .bin file something that’s normally included? Is it something I have to create? How does one make a .bin file out of the included FLAC or WAV audio files?

    So confused.
    paz

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