How To Convert .bin, .mdf To ISO In Linux

Convert your incompatible image files to ISO from Linux to mount them in VirtualBox.

22427 views

Edited: 2022-05-02 19:01

When we are working with VirtualBox in Linux, one of the only ways to mount a CD or DVD is to have it as a .iso file, which is also one of the only formats supported by VirtualBox. In this tutorial, it will be shown how to convert various formats to iso using command line tools in Linux.

Sometimes using the Terminal can be quite inconvenient, but with these conversion tools it is actually very simple, and maybe even easier than using some GUIs for the task. Nevertheless, I still think authors of these tools should work towards creating a GUI. It is often because of the lack of a GUI that people turn away from Linux.

MDF to ISO

MDF files can be converted with a tool called mdf2iso. You may need to install this before using it, so type the following in a terminal:

sudo apt-get install mdf2iso

After finishing the installation you can navigate to the directory where the .mdf files is located. In this case we will assume it is located in /home/MyUser/Downloads.

cd /home/MyUser/Downloads

Then convert the file by typing this:

mdf2iso MyImage.mdf

The new .iso will automatically be created.

BIN and CUE to ISO

To convert a .bin and .cue file to a .iso file type the following:

bchunk MyImage.bin MyImage.cue WhateverFilename.iso

IMG to ISO

ccd2iso MyImage.img WhateverFilename.iso

As usual, you may need to install the application before using it, so simply type:

sudo apt-get install ccd2iso

Tell us what you think:

Dan

I tried ccd2iso on a bin/cue set and it created a 49MB iso file and 22 .cdr files which I am assuming are supposed to be tracks?

I must be missing data somewhere...