Free online BIN to IMG converter

A flashing utility, emulator, or archival program may accept .img but reject a .bin filename. For a raw disk image, creating an IMG copy usually preserves the data exactly; BIN/CUE optical images require their cue sheet and track layout to remain intact.

What the BIN format is

.bin is a generic binary extension, not one standardized disk-image format. It may identify raw sectors from a hard drive, USB drive, memory card, CD, or DVD, but it can also contain firmware, application data, or console-game data.

Backup utilities, disk-imaging tools, optical-disc authoring software, and firmware tools create BIN files. A BIN paired with .cue usually represents an optical disc; the CUE file records track order, track types, pregaps, offsets, and the name of the BIN data file. A BIN without a CUE file may be a raw disk image or a proprietary binary that cannot be safely converted by changing its extension.

What the IMG format is

.img commonly identifies a raw, sector-by-sector image of a floppy disk, hard disk, USB device, memory card, or optical disc. Imaging utilities, virtual machines, emulators, and operating systems can often write, mount, verify, or restore these files without changing the filesystem inside them.

The IMG extension is useful when a target program specifically expects it. It does not add compression, error correction, encryption, or filesystem conversion. The image remains usable only when the target software supports its sector size, partition table, filesystem, and media type.

Convert a raw BIN file

Use this method only after confirming that the BIN is a raw disk image. An unknown firmware or application BIN can be damaged or misused if treated as bootable media.

1. Keep an untouched backup of the original file.
2. On Windows, open PowerShell in the file’s directory and run Copy-Item .\source.bin .\image.img.
3. On Linux or macOS, run cp source.bin image.img.
4. Open or write image.img with the program that requires the IMG extension.

This is a byte-for-byte copy, not a re-encoding, so it preserves the source data and its original size. Renaming source.bin to image.img can also work, but making a separate copy retains the original file for identification and recovery.

Convert a BIN/CUE optical image

Keep the .bin and .cue files together. Open the CUE file in a compatible disc-imaging or authoring program and select an output format supported by the destination application. Some programs can create an IMG-style raw image; others output ISO, a proprietary image, or another BIN/CUE set.

Do not rename only the BIN when the CUE file describes multiple tracks, audio data, pregaps, or nonstandard sector layouts. If the destination program accepts BIN/CUE directly, use the original pair instead. Converting it to one IMG file can remove track metadata or produce an image that no longer reproduces the original disc structure.

Convert without installing software

You can use the free converter on 101convert.com when the file is supported: upload the BIN, select IMG as the output, start the conversion, and download the result. An online conversion may not preserve BIN/CUE track metadata, and firmware, private backups, or other sensitive binary files should not be uploaded unless their contents may be handled that way.

Check the result

For a raw BIN, the copy should have the same byte size and checksum as the source. On Linux use sha256sum source.bin image.img; on macOS use shasum -a 256 source.bin image.img; in PowerShell use (Get-FileHash source.bin).Hash -eq (Get-FileHash image.img).Hash.

The extension does not change sector size, partition layout, bootability, filesystem, encryption, or optical-disc track structure. If the BIN is split, encrypted, proprietary, or part of a BIN/CUE set, use software designed for that format rather than a simple copy. Before writing the result, ensure the destination device is at least as large as the image and select the correct device because imaging overwrites existing data.