Once upon a time, personal computer users and fans of Mac OS could only dream of having this system on a desktop computer. There were many conditions that had to be followed in order to install and configure this "OS". Now everything is much easier. The system began to support the vast majority of equipment and is able to work with most of the peripherals. Most importantly, before buying it, check if the particular device has support for Mac OS.
Preparation
This is perhaps the most important step in the process. Installation on a Mac OS PC requires care and careful checking of all elements.
- The first thing we recommend you do is print out this manual if you don't have a second computer handy. Do not try to do all the operations on memory.
- If this is your first operating system reinstall, it may take up to 6 hours. Make sure you have free time.
- Make sure you really need it. Why carry out experiments that are dangerous for your personal computer, if, for example, a laptop with Mac OS Yosemite is enough for ordinary work purposes.
- Perfectcase, the entire hard disk must be formatted in FAT32. All its sections.
- Download and burn Hiren's Boot CD. This program will allow you not only to work with hard disk partitions, but also to diagnose the state of your computer if something goes wrong.
- Save all your data on a flash drive or external hard drive.
Image
Now it's time to download the disk image with the operating system, if you don't already have one. There are many builds, but it's better to choose not the newest "Mac OS Yosemite", but more stable and reliable, and just more convenient to install, and later update it with built-in tools.
After downloading the file, check its format. If it has the extension ISO, MDF, then you can safely write them to disk. If the format is DMG, then you will also have to download the DMG2ISO utility and convert your image to a more suitable format for recording.
After you burn the image to disk, it should contain several files up to 150 kb in size, or nothing at all. This is due to the fact that Windows does not recognize the format of files intended for another system. So don't be alarmed, installing Mac OS on a PC should go like clockwork.
Installation
Let's first look at how a clean install of Mac OS works. That is, to a computer with a brand new and empty hard drive.
Everything happens in the same way as when installing the usual Windows. We insert the installation disk into the computer and at startup, press the desired button todownload from an external device.
After the message about installing from disk appears, press F8, or wait a bit and type "-v" without quotes. This will allow you to continue the installation process of the operating system in text mode, otherwise you will be taken to the graphical interface. In principle, it is up to you to decide whether to do this, because it all depends on the situation.
- If you have already used this disk with the system build, you can try to continue in graphical mode.
- If this is your first install, it is highly recommended to run text mode. This way you can keep track of any errors that occur.
Nothing more difficult. If everything went smoothly, then a blue window with a pointer should appear in front of you. Choose the language we need.
After that, the menu will appear. Click "Utilities", select "Disk Utility" from the list. With its help, we format the FAT32 partition we prepared in Mac OS Extended journaled. After the process is completed, click "continue" and move from screen to screen. We select the prepared partition for installation and select the components we need. Mac OS setup is very important. You must select exactly those elements that correspond to the hardware of your computer. Moreover, you cannot install the same drivers from different manufacturers. For example, if your processor works on SSE3 technology, then in no case put a patch for SSE2. In this case, the performance of the system no oneguarantees.
Mistakes
Installing Mac OS on a PC involves considerable risk and complexity, so it is possible that errors may occur during the process. The first troubles await the user at the initial boot stage, before the menu appears. There are two most common troubles.
- "System config file '/com.apple. Boot.plist' not found". This entry means that you downloaded the wrong distribution. You will have to download a different version of the OS.
- "Still waiting for root device". Most likely, you have an incompatibility of the hardware with the OS. Unfortunately, the hard drive or motherboard may need to be replaced.
The following problem may occur during partition formatting. If the operating system cannot format the partition, use "Acronis Disk Director Suite". Set the format mode to manual and create a FAT32 partition and the partition change type is 0xAFh (Shag OS Swap). Please restart your computer and try the installation again.
Finishing
When the Mac OS PC installation is complete, there may still be problems running it. If you get a "b0 error" it could mean a problem with the boot sector. To fix this error, run "Hiren's boot CD". Select the "Acronis Disk Director" utility and activate the partition with Mac OS installed. We reboot. Everything should work now.
Bootable flash drive
If you successfully installedoperating system, you may now need to update it. For these purposes, a bootable Mac OS USB flash drive is ideal, because it is not always convenient to download an update from the AppStore every time. In order to create such a device, you will need a little:
- Computer with "Mac OS Yosemite" installed.
- Diskmaker X.
- USB flash drive, minimum 8 GB.
- Operating system update file.
- Administrator access to PC.
After you have prepared everything, you can safely proceed.
- Insert USB flash drive into PC.
- Start Diskmaker X.
- Select the operating system we need.
- Select the firmware file (update). You should have downloaded it from the AppStore. By default, it should be in your Applications folder.
- Choose your flash drive.
- Agree to its cleaning.
- Waiting for the end of the process.
That's it, your Mac OS bootable flash drive is ready. Now, in order to install the operating system from it, restart the personal computer with the option key pressed. Or select a different boot volume in system settings.
When installing OS X on a personal computer running Windows, remember that they support various hard drive formats and BIOS settings. You may have to change the OS boot priorities and its parameters through this system. Be careful.
