Preparing your Installers for Mac OS X

Friday, September 30, 2011

imagePreparing the install material for Mac OS X is relatively easy. There are four ways of doing so and this relies completely on preference and hardware.

Before we create our installation media, we need a suitable Mac OS X install disk. There are many distributions of Mac OS X that can be used, along with the retail Mac OS X disk, but the method that I have chosen and so far had the most success with is installing with iAtkos.

In this tutorial, I will show you how to get set up with iAtkos s3 v2, however, if you prefer another version of Mac OS X over Snow Leopard, then the end result of the tutorial as a whole will vary, but creating your image will not.

Downloading Mac OS X


If this is your first time installing Mac OS X on a PC and want it to work, you can download the iAtkos image with a program called uTorrent. You must install uTorrent first because the iAtkos link is a magnetic link and will require a bit torrent client to be installed.

Download uTorrent
Download iAtkos s3 v2 (10.6.3) – For both Intel and AMD

Using a USB Key to Install Mac OS X


I will start by showing you how to create the install media for a USB drive. There are two methods to create a bootable USB key and we will get to it.

If you choose to use a USB drive to install Mac OS X, you will need a second USB which will have a boot loader mounted to it.

An 8GB USB should be sufficient for iAtkos and a USB of than 1GB should be adequate for the boot loader.

Downloads:
NBI for Intel
EmpireEFI for AMD

Side Note:
If you are going to use a computer with an AMD processor, you will need to patch the kernel and Mac was not designed for AMD at all. Therefore, any issues that result from AMD will be difficult to resolve and it is highly recommended that you use an Intel-based PC for your Hackintosh.

Method 1: Using Windows:

If you decide to use Windows to create your iAtkos USB, you will need download and install TransMac and follow the following instructions before the trial expires.

Download:
Transmac 10.0
For both the Boot loader USB and the Mac OS X Install USB, the procedure is the same.

In Transmac, right click on the USB and choose Format Disk. There will be a subsequent menu where you will choose “Format with Disk Image.” Transmac will then prompt you to find the image to mount (Mac OS X Install for one and boot loader on the other).

image

Accept its actions and you will be ready when the program finishes.

Method 2: Using Mac OS X

If you would prefer to use a Mac for this purpose, you would go to Disk Utility. In Disk Utility, and select the USB drive and then click on the Restore tab on the right.

In the Restore section, you will see a box to put the incoming and a box for the outgoing. In the incoming box – it is very self-explanatory – you put the disk images (OS X Install DVD and then Boot loader on another USB) and in the Outgoing, you choose the appropriate USB.

Make sure that the option to erase the disk is checked and Disk Utility will partition the drive to HFS+ and mount the respective Images.

Using a DVD to Install Mac OS X


While most will either prefer to use USB keys or be forced to use USB keys because their computers don’t have DVD drives, there will be some who will plain and simply opt to burn the disk and install from a DVD. The disadvantage is that it takes longer to boot and install, but it require less work.

If you are planning to use iAtkos, you will not need another boot loader as it comes with a boot loader on the DVD – which unfortunately doesn’t work when transferred onto a USB.

Method 1: Using Windows

If you are using iAtkos, burn the image to a regular 4.7GB DVD with your favorite software – Windows 7 can burn ISO files out of the box.

If you are using a downloaded Retail DVD from the Apple Website, you can follow this tutorial if you have at least 2 optical drives. Otherwise, you will be forced to get a dual-layer DVD and hope that Transmac – see USB section – will do the trick – or refer to this tutorial. If you are using the retail version, you will also need to make a boot CD – see USB section above.

Method 2: Using Mac OS X

If you are using iAtkos, open Disk Utility and choose the Burn option. You can then choose the image to burn and then make sure the blank disk is in the machine. Once the burn is complete, you should be ready to go.

The same procedure applies to a retail disk, except that you will need a dual layer DVD and another CD along with a boot loader – see USB section above.

Now that you have your install media and your computer is ready (Previous tutorial), we can proceed with the installation in the next tutorial.

Mac OS X on your Computer Series
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13 Blogger:

Anonymous said...

if a want boot with Mac OS X, I must plugged the USB drive that containing the "boot loader"..?

Julian said...

@alvinpermana Yes, then from the boot loader, you select the other USB.

Anonymous said...

what happen if I boot my laptop without the boot loader..?

Julian said...

@alvinpermana It depends: If you are dual booting, you should have made the dedicated partition active and since it is empty you will be notified that you are missing an operating system. If you need to boot into Windows, use the USB key - it will detect the Windows installation. If you decide not to install Mac OS X and want to boot automatically into Windows, boot into it using the USB boot loader and then mark the Windows drive as active.

Note that if the Windows drive is marked as active during the Mac OS X install, the Windows boot loader will break and you will need to repair Windows if you are dual booting.

If you are single booting Mac OS X (Mac OS X only, no Windows or anything else), you don't need to do the partition stuff, it will boot into Windows automatically since the entire hard drive is marked as active.

Anonymous said...

yea thanks,
If I want single booting Mac OS X, I still boot into NBI USB first??

Julian said...

@alvinpermana You always use the NBI USB first because it can access the Mac OS X stuff that non-Apple bios cannot read. Once you're installed and updated, you can install the boot loader to be permanent and you won't need the USB, as it will automatically boot into Mac OS X that you've installed.

Alfin X-Converst Blog said...

Hi. . .
my laptop is HP 431-core i3-2Gb Ram, when i use the NBI boot loader, appeared message "unknown chipset bla bla. . . ."
i need your help. . .

Julian said...

@Alfin X-Converst Blog Try using iboot (or a different bootloader) in the place of NBI - burn it to a CD.

Alfin X-Converst Blog said...

the iBoot must burned on CD before . .?
I use USB drive and its not detected . .

MattB said...

Hey,

you've got some great pages and guidance up here.
I just started to look at doing this a few days ago and was all set to follow basshead's tutorial and put 10.6 onto an acer AOA150 with a 10.6 image and Chameleon prepped onto a usb stick etc.
But because I want to dual boot I came here - and on top of that your method is a) even easier and b) more recent? So. From what you know and state here, can your method really get my Acer ZG5 model to 10.6.3 in the one install AND have the wifi working with the existing Atheros card? (I bought the card only an hour ago for peanuts but your route looks tempting)

Thanks.

Julian said...

@MattB Installing Mac OS X is like Installing Windows once you've met the short detour with the boot loaders. Then comes the rough task of kexts which depending on your system may be a cake walk or a living nightmare but in terms of the Aspire One it isn't too bad.

Wifi will generally not work out of the box but you can usually find a kext for your model. If you know which driver you used in Windows or can get the info from the System Profiler (go to About this Mac) then you should be able to find the needed kext at sites like kexts.com and that.

I have provided a download of the one I use which worked on my Aspire One D250 model but it may or may not work on yours - but it's worth a try.

Best of luck with the install, it isn't too difficult and once you have everything set up, you're good to go for just about everything.

Julian said...

@Alfin X-Converst Blog iBoot should work on both a CD or USB, install it to the USB the same way you would NBI.

Julian said...

@MattB If you need any more help with setting up your internet configuration, you can check out my latest post where I address it.

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