File Types Guide

For the most part you should see a 3 letter/number combination after all of your files on your PC - that is the file extension (example: with resume.doc or somesong.mp3 the extensions are the doc or mp3). Sometimes there are more than 3 letters (e.g. .html or .torrent), but for the most part they are only 3 - still a a tie over from the good old days of DOS.

If you can't see this change your settings so you can. Double click on my computer on your desktop (or open windows explorer). Under the tools menu click on folder options, find the view tab, and uncheck the 'hide file extensions' box. Hit ok, then go find your file to see what it is to figure out how to access it correctly.

Find your extension below.
Compression: zip, rar, tar, ace
Documents: doc, wpd, pdf, txt, nfo, diz
CD/DVD Image: iso, bin, cue, img, nrg
Video: avi, mpg, mpeg, mov (see video FAQ page)

Originally created for use in DOS in the mid 1980s by Phillip Katz. Back then his program was PKzip, and compression was a big deal, since many hard drives from that era could now easily fit on a single CD many times over. Today zip files may be the most common way of compressing files. The most common program for use under windows may be WinZip. However, many people also use WinRAR since it opens zip files as well as a pile of other formats as well. Also note that Windows XP can now open these without any additional programs.

If you have one of these files, its probably pretty huge (hundreds of MB, if not over a GB). To open these files, use WinRAR. Just open the file in there and extract everything in it to a directory somewhere on your hard drive. Usually if you have a tar file it has a bunch of rar files in it, so if it does move on to that section.

If you have a rar file, as you may guess from above, open it with WinRAR, and extract the files you need. Its pretty much the same as zip files, just a different compression system. One thing many people do with WinRAR is divide the files into many parts, maybe about 15 MB a piece. See the next section about this.

These are still rar files, so get WinRAR. All you have to do is open the first file and WinRAR will do all the combining automatically. Which file is the first one? Its either somename.rar if all the other files are somename.r##, or somename.part01.rar if the other files are somename.part##.rar. If you hadn't guessed ## stands for numbers like 01, 02, 03... Anyway, just open the first file and extract the files just like it was a single file.

These are also rar files, so get WinRAR. All you have to do is open the first file (000 or 001) and WinRAR will do all the combining automatically. You could also rename that first file extension to rar and double click on it. You may be prompted for the name of the next part if you do that. Anyway, once you open it just extract the files like it was a single rar file.

Yet another compression file type similiar to zip and rar. This one the main program would probably be WinAce. But yet again WinRAR can handle these files as well. They also have a program called unace which can be used under linux.

Microsoft Word Document. Most other wordprocessors can open these as well if you don't have Microsoft Word or Microsoft Office.

Wordperfect Document. Wordperfect was the main wordprocessor during the days of dos. It's company (Corel) still makes a Office package similar to Microsoft, but Microsoft has the majority of the market today.

Portable Document Format. Use Acrobat Reader to open these files.

Text File. Just open with notepad or any other simple text editor or wordprocessor.

Info File. These are in many downloaded files, but windows has the extension associated with something else by default. You can read these with notepad or any other text file program. However, I recommend using Damn nfo viewer. This allows you to view ASCII Art as it was meant to look.

Description In Zip. Basically a signature file for the people that created or compiled a package. Either open with notepad or Damn nfo viewer.

Simplest Option: Do you have a CD (or DVD) burner? Then burn the image with your burning software. Note: This isn't the same as adding files to a CD you would add regular files to a CD-R or CD-RW... you need to find the "burn image file" option or something similar. I know Nero have this option - look under the file menu in older versions or the recorder menu in the more current ones.

I should also mention CDRWin here. Some people claim that it works better for them than other software for burning images, and often works when others don't.

These may also be DVD images, and another program called MagicISO should be able to burn both CD and DVD image files. However, this one isn't freeware. It appears to also allow you to convert basically any CD/DVD image format to iso or bin.

If you are having issues with burning these images, don't have blank a CD or DVD, or just don't want to be bothered wasting a disc, try one of the following:
Alternative One: Use Alcohol 120%.
Alternative Two: Use IsoBuster or WinISO to extract the files from these images. They is basically the same as extracting the files from the iso image as if it was a rar or zip file.

Again, if possible simply burn the image like with ISO files. The only difference here is to burn a bin file you need a cue file. It acts similar to a table of contents file to tell the burner what to do with it. Find the burn image option in your software, and select the cue file, and let it do its thing. If you are having issues, you might want to look at some of the stuff in the above ISO section, as some of the stuff may apply here as well.

A few unique things crop up with bin files. You have to have a cue file if you want to burn it directly. Good news is you can edit/create one yourself in notepad if you have problems or can't find the original. If you are having problems with an existing one, first make sure the bin and cue files are in the same directory. Then open the cue file up in notepad or any other text file editor. In the line starting with FILE you should see something like file-name.bin in quotes. If you see something like "e:\folder1\myjunk\some-name.bin", then delete the e:\folder1\myjunk\ part.

If you don't have one here's how to create one (at least most of the time):
Start a new text file in notepad. Remember to save it as a cue file or change the extension from txt to cue when you are done. Start with one of the following depending on what the bin file is of, and follow the directions in the next section.

Use me for PC CD-ROMS:
FILE "file-name.BIN" BINARY
TRACK 01 MODE1/2352
INDEX 01 00:00:00

Use me for VCD, SVCD, PSX, PS2 disks:
FILE "image-name.BIN" BINARY
TRACK 01 MODE2/2352
INDEX 01 00:00:00

Change "image-name.BIN" to the file name of your bin file, leaving the quotes.
You may need to change the 2352 on line 2 to 2048 or 2366. To determine this get a calculator (remember windows has one built in if you don't have one handy) and divide the exact bin file size by each of these values. Only one will give you an integer (whole number value without number after the decimal). That is the correct number to put in that spot.

Some cue files are more exotic and have multiple tracks and such... the problem is you don't know where to tell it to begin them. If thats the case you probably can't write your own if you lost it. Try extracting the files with one of the programs listed at the bottom of this page.

FYI: Confused by your 800MB Bin file and how it fits on a single CD?
Well believe it or not, but I almost guarantee it will fit on a single standard 700MB CD. Normal CDs have a set amount of space that is reserved for error protection. (S)VCDs are burned in mode2, and do not need this error protection - it is already built into it. So instead of putting unneeded data on the CD, it gets rid of the error protection, and can put more data on the CD. You can get roughly an 800 MB bin file to fit on a 700 MB CD when you tell your software to burn the image.

Many times these are DVD image files. I found DVD Decrypter to be a simple, freeware program that can burn these images. Install, start the program, and look under Mode for ISO, write. Select your source (the img file), and select which burner drive. Put a blank DVD in, select a burning speed, and click the big write button. Sit back and wait - in 20 minutes or so you'll have your DVD.

Nero Image file. Use Nero to burn these files. Not too many people use this format.

If you are dealing with a DVD image, chances are the size of the file is around 4.7 GB. But some users will get errors when trying to make this file larger than 4 GB when downloading or extracting the file. This is because of the file system your computer uses.

Here's the short version. If you are running Windows 98 SE or Windows ME you cannot have files bigger than 4 GB. This is due to limitations of the FAT32 file systems those versions of Windows use. Most DVD images are around 4.7 GB, meaning you cannot fully download them or extract them. Windows 2000 and XP can use either FAT32 or NTFS for the file system. To see which you have double click my computer on the desktop, right click on the C:, and select properties. It will say FAT32 or NTFS next to File System. The good news is you can convert a FAT32 drive to NTFS in Windows 2000 or XP.

Some things to think about before converting. First, DOS and Windows 9x based systems cannot read NTFS. So if you convert to NTFS and later stick a DOS boot disk in you will not be able to see the files on drive you converted to NTFS. Or if you are dual booting Windows 98 and XP and change the XP drive to use NTFS, you will not be able to read the files on the XP drive from Windows 98.

Also, be sure to backup your at least your critical files if not your entire system before converting. If something goes wrong or the power goes out or something during the conversion you may loose some or all of your data.

WARNING: Do NOT do this unless you have read and understand what you are doing. Again, you could loose data if something goes wrong so make backups. To convert your drive in Windows 2000 or XP go to the start menu, click run, type "cmd" and hit enter. At the command prompt type "CONVERT C: /fs:ntfs" (without the quotes) to convert the file system.

You cannot convert your drive to NTFS in Windows 95, 98 or ME. You cannot read NTFS drives from these systems, and they will not boot if you convert them using a program like partition magic.

This was one of the first audio formats out there, and was widely supported by windows and others. You know all the sounds windows makes on startup, shutdown, when errors occur and things like that? It is playing wave files. Your computer should already be able to play these, and almost any media player will play them as well.

Wave files a lossless format. This means there is little or no compression in the files, and all data from the original (e.g. a CD) is retained if a wave file is created from it. The downside is the files are huge when compared to most other formats.

This is the most common format for playing, storing and downloading music tracks on your computer, but its not necessarily the best. You may need an audio program to play these files, but your computer likely already knows what to do with these, unless you are running some ancient version of windows that hasn't had software updated in years. There are dozens of them, but most people either use Winamp or Windows Media Player.

MP3 files use compression, so you can take a large file like a wave file or CD audio and cut it down to something around 10-15% of the original file size.

But it is a lossy-redundant format, which is part of why this may not be the best format out there. In addition to compressing the audio, it also throws away some of the less needed parts. This can greatly reduce file size, but will also degrade the quality. There is a range of quality you can make with mp3s, ranging from radio quality up to near CD quality (but not actually achieving it).

To create your own mp3 files from a CD, I would recommend using CDex or AudioGrabber, both of which are freeware. First check the settings and set the things like quality level, encoder to be used, and the default file location. Then put in the CD and tell it to go to work.

OGG Vorbis is another format similar to mp3, and is a lossy-redundant format (see mp3 section for description). This format is free, open source, and patent free. However, it is not as common as mp3. Visit their site to get the stuff you need to play these files, or check out their FAQ for more info.

Windows Media Audio is yet another mp3 competitor. It is lossy-redundant as well (see mp3 section for description), and files can be created with a range of qualities similar to mp3. This should play on your computer already, assuming you have a relatively current version of Windows Media Player.

This is an audio format usually used with video. When you play a DVD, the audio tracks are encoded in AC3. Some video files (divx/xvid) are as well. With DVDs this allows them to easily switch audio tracks to other languages or directors commentaries. It also can retain high quality - it supports both 5 channel (surround sound) and 2 channel modes (stereo). You will need an ac3 filter to play these files if you don't have one already.

FLAC is short for Free Lossless Audio Codec. Obviously from the name, this is not a lossy-redundant format like mp3, wma, and ogg. It will retain the quality of the source, usually a CD. Thus the files are bigger to retain all the needed data. However, they are still smaller than wave files. While the file size will vary from album to album or track to track, it appears these are usually around 50-70% of the size of CD Audio and wave files. More info and the software needed to play these files available on the FLAC website.

This format seems to be most popular with 'legal' torrent sites that trade music, and/or trade live concerts. Lossy formats like mp3 don't always result in the desired quality.

Shorten files are also lossless. It also seems to be quite similar to the FLAC format from what I can tell in my limited experience with these. Again file sizes may vary, but they may be around 50-70% of the size of wave files, but still a few times the size of mp3s of the same music. FLAC and SHN formats are likely going to be within a couple percent of each other in file size (with obviously the same quality, they are both lossless). You can get more in depth info about shorten files here. Or you can just go straight to the winamp plugin

Also like FLAC files, this format seems to be most popular with 'legal' torrent sites that trade music, and/or trade live concerts. Lossy formats like mp3 don't always result in the desired quality.

Website Here. Get those files out of your iso file without burning. You extract them from an image file similar to getting things out of zip/rar files.

Website Here. Similar to IsoBuster, can also open bin files, and convert between iso and bin.

Website Here. This program has quite a few neat features. One of the big ones is you can mount several CD-ROM image types as a virtual drive. Basically this means the files in the image will show up like they are on a CD in for a new drive that doesn't actually exist. No CD burning required. This can save CDs, time, and frustration when messing with image files.