Installing Mac OS X on a normal PC
The news is not… new, but nowadays a lot of tutorials about how to install Apple’s OS X on an x86 computer are available, and the procedure is now followable by (almost) any PC user.
I want to remember to everybody that it’s illegal to install and use OS X without a valid licence. I take no responsability for any invalid use of this tutorial.
In addiction, please take note that the following procedure may cause a data loss, so do only if you know what are you doing.
We’ll see how to install OS X on a Windows XP machine, on a 7Gb dedicated partition. So you have to prepare your hard disk with:
- The first, primary and bootable partition with a normal Win XP installation;
- A second empty NTFS primary partition;
- Any other partition you like.
Please refer to other documentations if you don’t know how to deal with hard drive partitions. You can use, for example, Partition Magic to change your HD partitions… anyway if you are not experienced in partitioning, my tip is stop here 
Then, you have to get some software:
1. an Ubuntu Linux Live CD: you can get it, or you can download it… it’s free. A valid alternative to Ubuntu that I found is Knoppix STD: use it if you’ve problems with Ubuntu;
2. VmWare Workstation it’s a commercial application, but a free trial is available;
3. The Deadmoo’s OS X Linux distro: this is available on P2P networks, usually under tiger-x86.tar.bz2 filename. I want to remember again that you’ve no right to download and to use it, if you don’t have a valid Apple’s OS X Licence.
- Boot from Ubuntu (of Knoppix) Live CD;
- Open a Terminal Window, get administrative rights (it should be sufficient to enter the command “sudo su“)… and type:
cfdisk /dev/hda
- The CFdisk utility will start: choose the partition where you want to install OS X (it should be the second one, but please make attention!) and choose “TYPE”. Now write “AF” (without quotes, of course) as type, and confirm changes choosing “WRITE”. The partition you chose will be erased and it’s type will be set to AF (Apple Format).
Now reboot, go back to Windows XP, install and open VmWare.
Create a new “FreeBSD” virtual machine. When asked to choose the primary hard drive for the virtual machine, choose your phisical hard disk; Also add a second hard drive to the virtual machine: the virtual drive inside Deadmoo’s archive; insert your Ubuntu CD and make sure that your phisical DVD/CD-rom reader is enabled in the virtual machine.
Then start the virtual machine and press on ESC as the machine begin, to enter boot menu: choose to boot from CD. Ubuntu should start booting in the virtual machine’s window. On the contrary, if you see Windows starting, immediately turn off the virtual machine and check CD-Rom settings (in this case, the CD boot has not started and your Windows XP is going to start into itself!).
When Ubuntu is ready, open a terminal window and type a command like this:
dd if=/dev/hdb1 of=/dev/hda2/ bs=8192
hdb (2nd hard drive) should be the mounted Deadmoo’s image: our source;
hda2 should be the 2nd partition of the 1st hard drive (our phisical one): the destination.
CHANGE HDB1 and HDA2 with YOUR SETTINGS!
If you’re not sure about partitions, type:
fdisk /dev/hda -l
to get a list of your connected hard drives and relative partitions identifiers.
The process will take about 5-10 minutes. At the end, you can shut down the virtual machine.
Download this file.
It contains a file named chain0. Extract it to the root of your C:\ partition and add the following line:
C:\chain0=”Mac OS X”
to your C:\boot.ini file.
Now reboot your PC and choose Mac OS X at the boot list screen. Then the “Darwin boot” will ask you to select the partition with Mac OS X installed: select it with arrow keys.
Now try to type -s and then enter. If everything goes ok, at the prompt type:
sh /etc/rc
passwd curtis
passwd root
and enter your new password when asked. If anything is wrong, try to boot with -x or without arguments.
Please take note that sometimes it’s needed to boot several times (with -s, -x, or with no arguments) to get OS X work… I don’t know the reason, but it happens!
August 25th, 2006
Once i tried an imaging option installing MAC in my Intel PC.It was too slow… how is the performance under this method?
August 25th, 2006
This method is not an emulation (like others that run Mac OS X into a virtual machine… here VmWare is used only to transfer the OS X image to the 2nd partition): Mac OS runs directly on the x86 machine, so speed is… the best you can get.
Of course our PCs are not exactly the hardware thought by Apple’s developers, so speed is not the same of an original Macintosh. Anyway, on my modest AMD Sempron x64 @1.8Ghz speed is decent.
October 19th, 2006
hey,
the virtual drive included doesnt run correctly with vmware, can you try and see if it happens to you as well?
February 3rd, 2007
hi… i have linux Fedora Core. is it possible to use that one instead of Ubuntu or Knoppix?
Thanks:)
March 28th, 2007
hi my name is sami ur hman , and i want to install MAC OX on my PC
and my PC configuration is
1.8GHz
512 RAM
40GB hard disk
and ASUS P4sgx bord
is it possibile that i can install MacOX on my pc
June 2nd, 2007
i’ve some problem doing with ubuntu cd.. =(
*** after changing AF to one of the partation.. and
when the system restart.. got this error msg.. how to fix?
Invalid partition table. *** =(
June 2nd, 2007
okie.. solved..
sorry to bother u..
in cfdisk. i wrongly checked bootable to AF partation..
;D
June 19th, 2007
I am trying to install on my AMD X2 5200 but the keyboard and mouse does not work on the language select screen so I cant go any further , any suggestions?
August 5th, 2007
try usb mouse and keyboard. Run a search of ps2 keyboard mouse problems and osx86
August 16th, 2007
hello i have got intel core 2 duo processor i am using pear pc with mac osx 10.4 working fine however its slow would help me with this installation and send me some screenshots with steps..
really appriaciate you help
be waiting for your email..
thanks
saurabh chauhan
August 22nd, 2007
hey guys
i’m just about to start on this project, but!!
what about the drivers?
how will my hardware such as inca 88 ever gonna work on a mac os x?
Gustav..
August 22nd, 2007
when i do the dd if=dev/……. u get an error: Is a directory.
what can i do?
December 11th, 2007
I get the same message when i type dd if=dev/….. i get an error: this a directory, please can you help many thanks,
I’m using knoppix live cd to boot, and not ubuntu.
This is driving me nuts, I cant get past the “dd if=dev/” to install osx tiger, after many trys.
February 28th, 2008
Hey!
I get the same error as Apachie :
“dev/sda9 is a directory”
so.. I tried cd’ing into it but cd tells me :
“dev/sda9 is not a directory”
Help is appreciated!!
Thx
April 23rd, 2008
The fix for that is: dd if=/dev/sda1 of=/dev/sdb2 bs=8192, where sda1 and sdb2 are your OSX mountpoint and new AF partition respectively. The problem was the extra slashes were screwing it up, I think.
July 27th, 2008
hai;
am getting a messag sayin “NTLDR is missing” after chainloader from boot.ini…waiting for ur replay’
thnks in advance
max
August 12th, 2008
Hey can anyone please tell me how to install mac in my intel laptop please tell me in steps thanks: please mail me at caronkevin@gmail.com
Help is appreciated
Thanks
Best Regards
August 16th, 2008
Hey i want to insatll mac os on my pc my pc features are as below:
Motherboard- Gigabyte GA-945GCM-S2L/S2C
Processor – Intel P4 3.0Ghz Hyper threadting
Memory – 2GB DDR 2 RAM 644MHZ
Graphics – Nvidia8600 GT 512 MB ram DDR2
August 16th, 2008
Hey i forgot to say that i had an 250 GB hard disk
November 11th, 2008
yes Gunjan save..
It Will Work On ur Pc..With these Features..but actually will not work like it works on apple computer..because of..the hardware not the same..but good computer programers know what to do with it..and fix this problem…but u can do it…
January 24th, 2009
i have just installed this on my laptop hoping to duel boot with vista. but vista dosent have the boot ini file so i cant add the line c:\CHAIN0=”Mac OS X86″ /numproc=1 to it. there is a bcdedit.exe that is supposed to let you modify but dos window opens and closes straight away. any help please?
February 23rd, 2009
@Norman
Download ‘Vista Boot Pro’ working fine for me
April 9th, 2010
Hey, i’ve got Kubuntu…. will that work??????
June 2nd, 2010
hey ,
i have pc with following configuration listed below.I want to install MAC Os on my pc. is it possible to install MAC os with other OS like XP,Win 7etc….
Motherboard: Gigabyte G31sml-2
processor: Intel core 2duo 2.53
Ram : 3GB
HDD: 500GB
Graphics: Nvidia 9400GT 512 MB ram DDR2
June 2nd, 2010
hey ,
i have pc with following configuration listed below.I want to install MAC Os on my pc. is it possible to install MAC os with other OS like XP,Win 7etc….
Motherboard: Gigabyte G31sml-2
processor: Intel core 2duo 2.53
Ram : 3GB
HDD: 500GB
Graphics: Nvidia 9400GT 512 MB ram DDR2