Tech Shout!

Helios Software, a leading developer of cross-platform networking, PDF and image server solutions, has announced that it has released a Mac Intel compatible version of its backup tool Helios Xtar. What is more, this is available as a free download for all.

Helios Software being a leading developer is thus able to ensure reliable transfers of Mac meta data (Finder and resource information) between different platforms. Now that Helios has passed on its accumulated development experience to the Open Source community in the form of the free Xtar tool, the UNIX “tar” program has been extended by Helios to include full Mac OS X (PPC/Intel) compatibility.

Helios Xtar for Mac (PPC/Intel) is able to store each HFS file as a double file in the standard “tar” format. Unicode file names as well as all meta data, which includes creation and modification date, are well preserved. In fact, during the restore with Xtar to an HFS volume, the Finder and resource information is written into a valid HFS file. And, in doing so, all Mac OS X specific meta data are preserved so that volumes are bootable after the restore.

According to Helmut Tschemernjak, CEO and president of HELIOS, “It is a HELIOS Software tradition to share our development know-how with the community in the form of free tools. For example, HELIOS LanTest is used worldwide as a standard tool for measuring network data throughput. Likewise, HELIOS File System Test, is a tool used frequently as a neutral reference to verify the Mac OS X compatibility of file systems.”

“Helios Xtar qualifies as the ideal tool for cloning Mac OS X system drives. Xtar reliably performs data migration from Mac OS X systems to HELIOS volumes and vice versa,” Tschemernjak added.

The Mac Intel compatible version of backup tool Xtar can be downloaded from here http://www.helios.de/news/news03/N_06_03.phtml.