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General discussion

Trouble opening .bin and .hqx files

Aug 6, 2005 4:26AM PDT

Lately I have tried to download program installers for mac that are either in .bin or .hqx format. However, after I download the files and try to open them, strange things happen. With the .bin files, Excel tries to open them, and they just look like programming language crammed into the cells, so that's no help. With the .hqx files, I receive an error message saying that the computer doesn't know which program to use to open the file. How do I fix this problem? Thanks.

Discussion is locked

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You fix it by
Aug 6, 2005 5:16AM PDT
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Opening .bin files on the PC
Mar 2, 2008 6:02PM PST

I tried to download and use stuffit expander to open .bin files, but when I tired to drag them in it said it only allowed .zip files and stuffit files. Does anyone have any advice?

The files I am trying to open are .bin photoshop files from a Mac. I am able to open them in photoshop but all I see is a blank canvas.

Any advice would be great!
thanks

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.bin files from Photoshop
Mar 2, 2008 8:56PM PST

There is something else going on here. I don't recall Photoshop producing .bin files, I could be wrong though, so where are these files coming from?

Could it be that the person you are getting them from is doing something strange with the files?

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.bin files from a Mac
Mar 2, 2008 10:02PM PST

The files are from a Mac, and .bin is Mac binary code, I guess thats how he compresses them? I'm not sure.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

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from FTP
Mar 2, 2008 10:13PM PST

To clarify-

I am working remotely, and am trying to download files from someone's Mac via FTP, and .bin is the form they appear in.

Thanks again!

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On the other Mac
Mar 2, 2008 11:12PM PST

do these files have a .bin extension before you download them?

If the Mac is using OS X, files are usually compressed using the built-in compressor. This creates files in a ZIP format and should be easily opened by either Windows or Mac systems.

As already mentioned, .bin files are not limited to the Mac. MacBinary files are though and it is highly possible that the user you are trying to download from has "old" compressed archives OR is compressing the files, using a third party compressor, and has preferences set incorrectly for cross platform support.

The most reliable method is UUEncode, a unix encoding system, (not program) that is easily decrypted by either OS. When sending email attachment, I know you are not, this is the best method for a Mac user to use.

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Not necessarily,
Mar 3, 2008 2:00AM PST

.bin is binary code and is NOT limited to the Mac.

If you have any say over how these files are compressed, get the Mac user to compress them into UUEncode.

Under the System 9 OS, files that were destined for a Mac were normally in .sit or .sitx format. Both expandable using Stuffit expander.

Under OS X, .sit is not seen as much. Files usually appear as .HQX and Stuffit expander deals with them too.

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Thanks
Mar 3, 2008 8:29PM PST

I appreciate your help.

Will forward your reply to the Mac user and see what he has to say...

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(NT) OK, let us know what the response was
Mar 3, 2008 8:41PM PST
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Info from Mac User
Mar 3, 2008 10:54PM PST

This is what he said:

The problem we are having isn't that we are saving our Photoshop files in a .bin format, but rather that we are saving them as .psd or .eps files and they, for some reason, are listed and downloaded as .bin files when accessed on our server from an external client (Mac OS X server 10.4).


Does this give you any clues?
Thanks for your time.

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Try this:
Mar 4, 2008 8:49AM PST

If what they are saying is correct, and we cannot prove anything at this time, maybe it's time to confuse Windows a little.

Instead of double clicking on the downloaded file, try right clicking and choosing "Open with" and selecting Photoshop.

Alternatively, change the extension from .bin to .psd or .eps (as the case may be)

Here's the theory. OS's tend to believe what you tell them. Windows, unlike Mac, believes the extension on the end of a file and uses that, exclusively, to attempt to open the file.
The Mac OS does not rely on the extension and usually opens the file with the correct application. "Usually" does not mean every time! Happy

Do that with what you have downloaded and get back to us.

Hey, it's worth a try

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Already Tried...
Mar 4, 2008 5:24PM PST

Thanks for the advice. I had already tried your suggestion. The first time I would do "open with" and select photoshop without removing the .bin, it would open a blank canvas. After the first time I would start getting the error that its "the wrong type of document".

When I tried to change the extension from .eps.bin to just .eps and open in photoshop I got the error "the parser module could not parse the file".

Any other suggestions would be much appreciated!

Do you think buying the full version of stuffit would solve the issue?

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Full Version
Mar 4, 2008 8:52PM PST

Not sure that would help and I really don't go with the explanation from Mac user.

I think they should be concerned that their server is arbitrarily changing the file extensions on their .PSD files, AND, corrupting the contents of those files.

Do you know anyone with a Mac, apart from me, that you could attempt to download one of these files?

I would be happy to give it a shot if you email me, via my profile, the details of the site, url etc.

I have something I would like you to try. Email me via my profile with an email address for you

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Idea
Mar 5, 2008 9:01PM PST

I don't have authorization to give you that info.

is there any way I can try your idea without that?

Thanks

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Yes,
Mar 6, 2008 12:12AM PST

I assume you mean you cannot give me the url.

OK, email me at my Profile with an email address for you.

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If you are serious about fixing this problem
Mar 9, 2008 9:22AM PDT

then turn on your "Email this member" in your CNET user profile.

I want to send you a URL but do not want to send it to the world


P

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Same Problem
Oct 15, 2008 1:31PM PDT

Hi Mr. Mac Fixit!
I'm having the same problem with .bin extensions being added to filenames under the ftp protocol to a MacOS X server.

My client recently moved his websites to his "buddies" mac server.
Well, that turned out to be a really bad idea, nothing works.

Anywhoo I'm trying to move the site to goDaddy hosting.

Using a variety of FTP programs, (I'm a win user) I am finding that many files have a .bin file extension added to the filename, and when I remove the .bin extension the file is corrupted.

I can get the images the long, tedious way of entering the full URL to the actual image (ie www.yourdomain.com/images/image1.gif) in a browser and manually saving the image, but that work-around doesn't work for the swf files.

I can't contact the current MacOS X webhost because a: we're taking a site out of his control b: he doesn't actually know how to manage his server and probably wouldn't understand the problem.

If you have any suggestions or could help me in any way, I'd greatly appreciate it.