Computer literacy, assistance and repair

Hackintosh: installing Apple OS X on PC. How to install Mac OS X on a regular computer Install mac os x on PC

Why is it advisable to install Mac OS Ⅹ?

Experts note a number of advantages of Mac OS Ⅹ:


  • This system is not subject to virus attacks due to the rare use of buggy systems by hackers.

  • Thanks to the TimeMachine function, you can create system backups here.

  • On Mac OS Ⅹ: games developed for Windows, as well as Windows programs via Apple BootCamp, Crossover.

  • The system operates without reboots for quite a long time.

  • In Mac OS Ⅹ, multiple processes can operate at once without reducing overall system performance.

  • Apple offers a ton interesting applications for Mac OS Ⅹ

Is it possible to install Mac OS Ⅹ on a regular computer?

For those who are not deterred by the fact that installing Mac OS X on a regular computer is very difficult, let us note some nuances. In particular, a similar procedure can only be performed on a PC that has components compatible with such an operating system.

For example, chipsets are from Intel, and video cards are from NVidia. In this case, the lion's share of peripheral devices will not work. As a rule of thumb, Mac OS Ⅹ installs normally on a PC with a processor that supports SSE3, a Quartz Extreme, Quartz 2d, Core Image, GL video card.

In order to install Mac OS X correctly, partitions in NTFS will have to be converted to FAT32. Otherwise, there is a risk of an error occurring when creating a new partition, as a result of which the file system will no longer be readable normally.

How to install Mac OS Ⅹ on a regular PC?

For those who are little familiar with Mac OS X, the easiest way to install versions is 10.4.6 or 10.4.7, as there are practically no problems with their installation. It is not difficult to find such software on the Internet. Most often downloaded online operating system Mac OS X can be in ISO or DMG format. In the first case, we simply write the image to disk, in the second, we first convert it to ISO format using the DMG2ISO program, and then copy it to the media.


We install Mac OS X in stages:


  1. After we insert the disk into the drive and restart the computer, press the F8 key. After a few seconds, enter the Y symbol, which allows you to enter the text installation mode. Pressing other keys will redirect to graphical mode, which has lower functionality.

  2. If the error “system config file ‘/com.apple.Boot.plist’ not found’ pops up, this means that there is some mismatch in the operating system distribution. Therefore, you will have to look for another option.

  3. If the error “Still waiting for root device” appears, then the reason for the unsuccessful installation is hidden in the incompatibility of the hardware with the specific requirements for Mac OS.

  4. When the process is normal, the screen turns blue. After selecting the language, format the partition in which the Mac OS X operating system will be installed. It must correspond to Mac OS Extended journaled.

  5. In cases where Disk Utility is unable to format this area in HFS, we use Acronis. For this purpose, we set manual mode in Acronis Disk Director Suite, after which we create the required area in FAT32 format. Using the context menu, we adjust the type of the new partition, setting the value here to 0xAFh. We ignore the message about possible data loss.

  6. Next, we agree to the license, select the installation partition and the components of interest. It is important to choose those patches that are consistent with the system. Moreover, they must be adapted to either SSE2 or SSE3.

  7. We carry out the installation process of Mac OS X directly and reboot the computer.

  8. If the installation of the operating system was successful, you can start working with it. If the “b0 error” error appears, load the disk from Hiren’s boot, then using the Acronis Disk Director program, activate the partition with Mac OS X. Reboot the computer again.

Most users traditionally switch to a new version of OS X by simply clicking the “update” button in App Store. Undoubtedly, this is the easiest method, but at the same time it is not always the most effective, since over time many Mac users notice that their system is no longer as fast as it was at the beginning of operation, and updating does not solve the problem.

Users who constantly change and reinstall software on their Mac are especially susceptible to this problem. The reason for the decrease in performance is precisely the different system garbage and "remains" from remote programs which safely remain in place during the update. That is why many people prefer to install a “clean system”.

Things to remember before installing from scratch

First of all, be sure to do backup copy systems. To do this, the standard set of OS X programs includes a wonderful Time Machine utility.

Also be sure to make sure that all your contacts, calendars, mail, etc. synced with iCloud (settings>iCloud)

Clean installation of OS X El Capitan step by step

2. Reboot the Mac while holding down the key option(aka alt).

3. Select a USB flash drive as boot media.

4. After the Mac boots Recovery from the USB flash drive, visually it will happen like this:

open Disk Utility and format it HDD Mac.

5. To do this, select the hard drive partition in the panel on the left, then in the top panel click erase(do not change the format and name) then click again erase(at the bottom).

6. After formatting is complete, close Disk Utility and select reinstall OS X.

7. In the next window, select only the formatted hard drive and after completing the installation process you will receive a crystal clear OS X El Capitan.

By the way, you can reinstall the system from scratch without bothering with a flash drive. True, you need to have Capitan installed on your Mac before, also from scratch, otherwise the version of the system that came “in the box” will be installed.

So, if such a need arises, then restart your Mac while holding cmd+R, open Disk Utility and format the hard drive as shown above. Then you also choose Reinstall OS X and wait for the installation to complete.

Apple's policy, according to which the company installs its own operating system on computers produced under its brand, makes them extremely stable. By purchasing a MacBook and regularly updating the OS, you may never have to reinstall it. If you have Internet access, the system can be easily reinstalled over the network. If circumstances require you to install macOS from a flash drive, you need to do it correctly.

Since 2013, Apple has stopped selling the operating system to users. By purchasing any Mac, be it a laptop or a mini version, you receive macOS for rent and are provided with free updates for the entire life of the device.

  1. Find the App Store icon in the Dock and open it.
  1. On home page On the right side, under the account settings, there is a link that can take you to the site with the current OS. Currently the latest version is 10.3 High Sierra.
  1. Click on the “Download” button. The distribution weighs more than 5 GB, so the time it takes to receive it will depend on the speed of the connection used.
  1. When the download is complete, the installer will automatically launch.
  1. IN this moment we don't need her. Since we are going to create an offline bootable media, we need to close it. Click on the program window so that the controls appear on the top panel. Select the marked item. A similar operation can be performed with the keyboard shortcut ⌘Q. In macOS, this is a standard shortcut that allows you to close any active window.

Old OS versions

If you want to install another, more old version operating system, you can also find them in the App Store. El Capitan, Yosemite or Mountain Lion are placed in the purchase section, provided they have been used before. This is due to the company's licensing policy. The operating systems shown in the screenshot are considered purchased, and subsequent ones are rented by the user from Apple.

Creating a bootable USB flash drive

To create installation disk on a MacBook, just use the terminal. macOS works perfectly with the Windows FS and does not require the installation of Transmac analogues. The NTFS format is supported out of the box in read mode, and FAT32 and exFAT are fully supported.

You will have to format the flash drive if it uses any Linux file system, for example, ext3. Before use, the removable disk must in any case be cleaned of the information on it.

Formatting

Formatting in macOS is done using Disk Utility. You can find it by opening Launchpad in the Others folder or using Finder. Let's choose the second option as it is more convenient. Traditionally, a flash drive for modern operating systems should be at least 8 GB.

  1. Open Finder and select “Applications” in the navigation area. Open the folder marked in the screenshot.
  1. Select the specified utility.
  1. We are looking for external drives. Select the name of the flash drive specified by the manufacturer, highlighting it. In the top control menu, the “Erase” button is activated. Click on it to open the next dialogue.
  1. The system will automatically offer us the format and layout of the sections. They should match those shown in the screenshot. To clean and format the flash drive with the selected parameters, press the marked button.

Now there is zero information left on the external media and you can write the distribution kit to it.

Recording a distribution

The file we downloaded from the App Store is not ISO way. This is a full-fledged installation wizard with its own set of utilities. For this reason, the system places it in the programs folder and not in downloads. From there we will record it onto external media.

  1. We return to the “Utilities” folder and launch “Terminal”.
  1. Enter the following write command on behalf of the system administrator:
sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia –volume /Volumes/Kingstone

Quotes are not required, but instead of Kingstone we indicate the name of the flash drive used.

  1. Enter the password. The symbols will not be displayed. We complete the set by pressing the Enter button.
  1. The system will ask you for confirmation to clear the selected volume. Type “Y” and press the enter key.
  1. Before copying data, the system erases the flash drive.
  1. The recording ends with the appearance of information messages about the creation of bootable media and the transfer of the data required by the installer to it.

The write command syntax varies for each distribution. Therefore, if you are planning to make a flash drive to reinstall macOS other than High Sierra, please visit the Apple support page provided. The finished command from there can be immediately copied to the terminal.

Installing macOS

After connecting the media to the USB port, we reboot. Mac computers do not use the usual BIOS, so there is no additional configuration required.

  1. Our task is to prevent the computer from booting from the SSD and launching the initial volume selection menu. Therefore, immediately upon reboot, hold down the “Option” key. Hold it until the dialogue shown in the screenshot appears. The Windows volume will be present if it is installed on the Boot Camp partition. Here you will need to translate the specified arrow symbol from Macintosh HD to the installer icon.
  1. Select the language in which menus and dialogs will be displayed.
  1. For a “clean” installation, we need to open Disk Utility.


It so happens that the vast majority of computers in the world have the Windows operating system installed, but this situation has developed not because there are no more worthy competitors, but due to certain of its features. There is a competitor to Windows and a very serious one. Many users complain that the system from Microsoft is not always stable and correct. Of course, such problems are a consequence of one of the main features of the Microsoft product, namely openness. This problem has been largely resolved by Apple, using their operating system, which is called Mac OS X. The operating system from Cupertino developers is superior in many aspects to its more popular competitor, which undoubtedly attracts more and more new users. In this article we will take a closer look at how to install Mac OS X on a computer or laptop. Let's figure it out. Go!

Installing Mac OS X on your computer is very easy

The first thing you need to understand before installing OS X is that it is recommended to install this system on laptops with processors from Intel, because the system is not compatible with the AMD manufacturer. In principle, it can be installed, but this will be fraught with a whole bunch of different problems.

The next thing you need is a blank flash drive with at least 8 gigabytes and, in fact, the Mac OS operating system itself. You can download it on any torrent tracker. It is not recommended to download anything from suspicious sites, as this may lead to your computer being infected with malware. software. Find the file with the system to install on a USB drive and download it. After you download the file, you need to mount the disk image. To write an image to a flash drive, you can use the R DriveImage utility, which can be easily found and downloaded on the Internet. The flash drive must be bootable, otherwise you won’t succeed.

With the main window of the R DriveImage program open, click the “Restorefromanimage” button. Next, specify the path to the file with the “.arc” extension. After that, select the USB drive on which you want to burn the image, having first formatted it in file system FAT32 and start recording. You can use the UniBeast program. With its help it is very easy and simple to create a bootable USB flash drive for OS X. This is done as follows. Open Disk Utility and locate your drive on the left. Go to the “Disk Partition” tab and then to the “Current” section. Specify the first section. Click the “Options” button and check the “Master Boot Record” checkbox. Set the name to "USB" and set the format to "Mac OS X Extended (Journaled)". Now launch UniBeast and go to the “DestinationSelect” window, after clicking the “Continue” button several times and agreeing to the usage policies. At this point you need to select your USB drive. Next, at the “InstallationType” stage, make sure that the line “MacAppYosemite 10.10” is checked. Enter your password and start installation. After that, everything is done the same for both methods. Choose the one you like best.

When finished, close the utility and restart your computer. During boot, press the F12 or Delete key on your keyboard to go to the BIOS (depending on the manufacturer of your laptop or computer; you can find out how to go to the BIOS on a specific computer on the Internet). Then set the flash drive to the highest boot priority.

After this the computer will start. When the “boot:” line appears, enter the command in it:

V GraphicsEnable=No

This is done in order to be able to track errors that may occur during the installation process. So, you can enter the name of a specific error on the Internet and immediately find out how to fix it. If everything goes well, pretty soon you will see a white screen with a loading indicator. After downloading, select the “Utilities” section in the top panel, and then “Disk Utility...”. Here you will need to select the disk partition on which you want to install Mac OS X. Go to the Erase tab. In the “Format” section, select “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” and click on the “Erase” button. Everything happens literally instantly, so you can immediately move on to the next step.

In the window that opens, select the drive from which you just erased data and click on the “Continue” button below. The entire installation process of the Mac OS X operating system takes on average about 20 minutes. It all depends on how powerful your computer or laptop is. Then you will have to repeat the previous steps again, namely reboot the PC, open the BIOS and run the same command in the “boot:” line. The only difference is that now you will no longer need to boot from a flash drive, but from hard drive. Don't miss this moment so as not to get confused and load normally. After this, you will be taken to the laptop desktop already running Mac OS X.

Now you can run the Multibeast program to select and download all the necessary drivers for your PC. Having done this, click on the “Build” button, and then “Install”.

Ready. Mac OS X is installed on your computer or laptop and is ready to use.

As you can see, the installation process of this OS is no more complicated than installing Windows. Of course, not all users will be able to install correctly the first time. Practice won't hurt here. The ability to reinstall operating systems will come in handy more than once in your life. Write in the comments whether this article was useful to you, share your own experience of installing Mac OS with other users and ask any questions you have about the topic discussed.

For a long time you avoided global software updates on an old Mac, but finally gave in and upgraded the computer's operating system to latest version macOS Sierra. Unfortunately, after the update, instead of the performance optimization promised by Apple, your machine became, to put it mildly, slow, and the new OS X features, frankly speaking, are not admirable at such operating speeds. What to do? Is it possible to downgrade, for example, from OS X El Capitan (macOS Sierra) to OS X Mavericks?

Fortunately, it is possible. Apple does not advertise methods for downgrading macOS, but at the same time does not prohibit them, as is the case with iOS.

After installing OS X Mavericks on your old Mac, you will be happy to see that your computer begins to “fly.”

Does your Mac slow down after updating to macOS Sierra (OS X El Capitan)? Install a clean OS X Mavericks

It’s worth noting right away that you can’t restore to OS X Mavericks on all Macs. For example, if you bought a Macbook with OS X Yosemite pre-installed, then the hardware will not allow OS X Mavericks to be inserted for recovery, because this version of the OS was released earlier. The earliest system to install in this case will be OS X Yosemite.

Video instruction:

Save your personal information

IN in this case IT IS NOT RECOMMENDED to resort to backup using Time Machine. Since the backup will be created on latest version OS X, it’s not a fact that it will deploy correctly on an older system or whether it will deploy at all.

Ideally, copy the necessary files and folders to an external hard drive.

To avoid issues with Find My Mac and Activation Lock, sign out of your iCloud account in System Preferences. Disabling the feature will happen automatically. The process of removing a device from an iCloud account is described in more detail.

IMPORTANT: Before you begin, be sure to check:

  • Is the Mac tied specifically to yours and not to any other?
  • Do you remember the credentials (username and password) of your Apple ID. You can check, for example, by logging into this page (from your computer).

The fact is that if the function was activated on the Mac (located along the path: System Settings -> iCloud -> ), then after reinstalling the system (resetting to factory settings), the system will ask you to enter the Apple ID to which the device is linked.

3 . Insert the flash drive into a USB port on your Mac.

4 . Open the system application Disk Utility. Located on the way Programs -> Utilities.

5 . On the left side of the program, select the connected USB drive.

Important: there should be only 1 partition on the flash drive, the partition scheme is GUID.

6 . Select the only partition on the flash drive and press the button Erase in the top menu.

7 . In field Name enter the name of the flash drive, for example, Flash. In field Format select value.

8 . Click Erase and watch the formatting process. This may take a few minutes. When the process is complete, click Ready.

9 . Select the formatted partition of the USB flash drive (in our case the Flash partition), open the top menu Edit and select Restore.

10 . Specify the path to the OS X Mavericks image downloaded in step 2 by clicking the button Image or simply drag the image file onto the window indicating the file path.

In field Restore to… must be indicated OS X Base System.dmg.

11 . Click the button Restore and follow the process of creating a bootable USB flash drive with OS X Mavericks.

The speed of creating a bootable flash drive depends on many factors and averages 20-40 minutes. When the process is complete, click Ready.

Note: If the recovery procedure fails the first time, try again.

Format your Mac's built-in storage

1 . Restart your Mac using the menu  -> Reboot.

2 . During the reboot process, hold down the keys on the keyboard ⌘Cmd And R, after which the Mac will boot into recovery mode.

3 . In the window that appears OS X Utilities select item Disk Utility and press Continue.

4 . Select the partition of the system drive intended for the system and click the button Erase in the top menu.

5 . In the Format field, select a value OS X Extended (Journaled) and press the button Erase.

The process of formatting the system drive partition will begin. When finished, click Ready.

Restore Mac to OS X Mavericks

1 . Insert a bootable USB flash drive containing OS X Mavericks into a USB port on your Mac.

2 . Restart your Mac using the menu  -> Reboot.

3 . During the reboot process, hold down the key on the keyboard ⌥Option (Alt), after which a list of drives from which you can boot your computer will appear on the screen.

4 . Select the bootable USB flash drive with OS X Mavericks, it will be called OS X Base System.dmg.

5 . The OS X Mavericks installation process will begin. Follow the instructions on the screen.

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