The .BIN/.CUE image file format was developed by Jeff Arnold for the CDRWin program. An image consists of two files which contain binary data and metadata, respectively. The filenames typically match (e.g. image.bin and image.cue).
The .BIN file contains an exact copy of all data stored on an optical disk in raw, unprocessed form. For this reason, some programs use the .RAW suffix for these files. The file contains all data stored on the original disk - not only its files and folders, but also system-specific information such as boot loaders, volume attributes, error correction codes and other metadata on the disk itself. Of the 2352 bytes in each CD sector, only 2048 contain user data; the additional 304 bytes per sector primarily contain error correction information. Other formats, such as .ISO, do not store all this (mostly redundant) information, resulting in a smaller file. The .BIN format is useful for exotic disks, such as those containing multiple tracks or mixed track types (e.g audio & data), and for non-PC CDs (e.g. PSX, VCD, Mac).
