Install Mac OS X Leopard OSx86 on PC Dual Boot Windows 7, Vista in 9 Easy Steps

Recently, I installed Mac OS X (OSx86 Project) on My HP Laptop. It took me 24 hours to experiment witha ll possible procedures and install. Most of the guides available on the wikis and blogs are complex, in-accurate. I Promise to keep this one easy and effective.

I`ll try my best to answer questions in the blog itself, Still, feel free to ask questions.

Looking for Snow Leopard by Geeknizer(taranfx)? Here is another New and easy Guide: Install Snow Leopard on PC or Install Snow Leopard on VMWare

Before you Begin

There are Several Flavours of OSX86 Project available. Few of the popular ones are:
iPC, iATKOS, Kalyway, iDeneb etc.

None of these is perfect, but as time passes, they approach perfection.
iPC is the most advanced you can get, keeping into consideration that it supports largest database of hardware, followed by Kalyway, iDeneb and others. Most Important thing you should check for is your Hardware compatibility List (HCL) on OSX86 wiki.

Steps to install:

1. Download OSx86 10.5.x

Go to your favorite torrent site and Download 10.5.x of your favorite flavor among the listed ones. Latest version is 10.5.7. Though 10.5.6 is also a fair deal. Burn the downloaded “.ISO” file to DVD using PowerISO / MagicISO or any other burning software.

2. Create Partition, preparing Disk:

In windows 7 or vista, Right click My computer > Manage, click Disk Management. Here create a primary partition with minimum 8GB space, though recommended is 15GB. There is no need to format this partition. After Partition is created, right click > Mark Partition as Active.

Burn the OSX86 ISO that you downloaded from torrents on to a DVD and reboot with Boot from DVD. Now you should see Darwin load screen.

3. Booting and starting Installation

As countdown from 10 starts, press F8 key and you will be able to have some more option’s. Now type -v and press enter now entered in VERBOSE mode, this will enable you to see any errors if they occur. In case your screen freezes for more than 10 minutes than note last lines and google them to find out a solution for your problem. If every thing goes fine after 15-30 minutes installation screen appear’s hold your breath we are not quit yet here.

Alternatively, to skip the booting errors, you can try these parameters on Boot: prompt

-cpus=1, -cpus=2.

4. Configuring Installation

After boot, you enter the Graphical interface and you should be able to see a top menu. From the menu Click Utilities > Disk Utility.

Here, select the destination drive where you want to install Mac OSX. this will be the same partition we created earlier in step 1.

Now click on ERASE on right hand side and under the format option select “MAC OSX Journaled Extended” and click Erase. The disk will be erased and mounted. Close the disk utility and agree to the terms and conditions, then select the partition which you erased recently.

5. Customize the Install

The most important part is this step. Now, choose wisely what all components you need to support your running hardware. Browse at http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page Navigate to the HARDWARE section and choose your version(10.5.x) and computer type (Portable/Desktop). This page should give sample hardware examples that people have tested, and modules they have selected.

If you have doubts, you can check the Insanelymac.com forums.

For most of the INTEL based systems Vanilla Kernel works very smoothly & for AMD system try Voodoo kernel. It is recommended to remove all the extra unnecessary languages as they take up about 2 gigs. Also, dont add extra Drivers (.KEXTS) which might cause conflicts. e.g. if You have NVIDIA geforce on your laptop, you should select NVDarwin from the “Graphics” section, not all.

Hit Ok when you are convinced!

6. Checking the disk and Installation of System files

Now your disk(DVD) will be checked for consistency, then, installation begins. It will take 20-45 minutes as per your hardware juice. After the installation is over, it will ask for a reboot. Remove the DVD after it has rebooted.

You should be able to automatically boot into OS X at this time.

7. Setting up the Boot Loader

Now that OS X is all working, we have to make the previous installation of Windows 7 or Vista to work. for this, I`ll use the Windows boot loader rather than chameleon boot loader built-in to OS X. This helps you prevent re-fixing MAC OS installation when you re-install windows at some time in future.

Put in your windows 7 or Vista disk, and boot from it. When installation starts, it prompts for “Recovery”. Select the recovery option. On you will be prompted to choose tools available for recovery. Select “command-line”.

DISKPART> list disk // displays the available HDD
DISKPART> select disk n // select the disk which has windows installation
DISKPART> list partition // list partitions on the selected disk
DISKPART> select partition n // select the partition number where windows was previously installed.
DISKPART> active //sets partition active
DISKPART> exit

REBOOT.

Now your vista /windows 7 should boot, If it doesn’t try this:

Boot with installation disk into windows setup, choose recovery again, and select automated recovery of boot area. Windows should fix the boot automatically, then click Fix and reboot button.

8. Adding MAC to the Boot menu via Windows:

Boot into windows normally and download EasyBCD from google. Open it, click “Add/Remove entries” navigate to “Mac”. Select Type in the dropdown to “Generic x86 Pc” and give some name in the text box below. This name will appear in your boot screen. Click “SAVE” when done and REBOOT.

9. There is no Step 9. You should be able to boot into booth MAC OSX Leopard and Windows without any issues.

Enjoy the wonderful world of MAC!