The cross-platform "mkisofs" disk image utility can be downloaded for free. The program was released by HELIOS Software GmbH and can be used to generate flexible disk images for file archives and backups of critical files that goes far beyond simple DVD image creation. The software  "mkisofs" can be used for system snapshots, cross-platform archives, legal preservation, platform independent file transfer and as a simple and affordable backup software utility.

    HELIOS Software accumulated development experience over the years and now it`s proud ot offer the software for free to the Open Source community. The company offers cross-platform networking, file transfer, PDF and image server solutions. HELIOS has extended the open source "mkisofs" utility, removing size and format limitations, making it a powerful and flexible tool ideal for creating data archives and custom universal disk format (UDF) images. It is scriptable for automated tasks (including scheduled backups) and can be used interactively (via "hot folders").

    The utility has a built-in cross-platform support for preserving Mac and Windows file attributes, and is hardware independent. The disk images that are generated that can be read on multiple platforms. This makes HELIOS "mkisofs" suitable for long-term, archival applications where future OS and hardware requirements are unknown. Additionally, since HELIOS "mkisofs" creates "read-only" disk images, it can be used for preservation and legal archival documentation as it provides an uneditable snapshot of system files, documents or other data.

    Helmut Tschemernjak, CEO and president of HELIOS, stated: "Today's growing disk capacities and inexpensive external disk systems allow storing read-only archives quickly on disk instead of burning media or using proprietary tape formats. HELIOS created a general purpose version of "mkisofs" capable of creating disk image archives that preserve Mac, Windows and UNIX attributes, and that can be easily mounted by Mac or Windows users."

    At the begining "mkisofs" was mainly developed by the pioneer public domain engineer Jörg Schilling. Earlier versions are distributed with Sun Solaris, IBM AIX, Linux as well as part of many other solutions. "mkisofs" is now distributed as part of "cdrtools". The source code is available at: http://cdrecord.berlios.de/old/private/cdrecord.html. HELIOS contributions to "mkisofs" have been submitted to Jörg Schilling for incorporation into the "mkisofs" source.

    At http://www.helios.de/news/news07/mkisofs.phtml we can find more information about the background and development of "mkisofs" in the open source community and the system requirements, and how its use would differ from alternatives such as Apple Time Machine, Carbon Copy Cloner, HELIOS Xtar, rsync and Disk Utility (Apple).