When you install Windows on a hard drive, it automatically sets the partition scheme of your hard drive to MBR (Master Boot Record). Unfortunately, Mac OS X doesn't support that partition scheme, so you usually have to erase your entire hard drive, including your Windows install, before you can begin Hackintoshing with it. However, it's possible to install OS X on a hard drive without erasing Windows, by using nawcom's ModCD.Nawcom's ModCD, a popular alternative to iBoot, modifies parts of the retail Mac OS X Snow Leopard DVD so that you can install custom Hackintosh tweaks from within the Mac OS X installer, just like Mac "distros" (except that ModCD is legal). This includes changing "OSInstall.mpkg", the installer inside the Snow Leopard DVD, so that it supports hard drives with a MBR partition scheme. This means that you can install Mac OS X on a hard drive that already has Windows on it.
Requirements:
- A compatible computer: Not every computer will work with Mac OS X, even with the help of tools like ModCD and Multibeast. Be sure to read the Hackintosh compatibility guide very carefully, to check whether or not your computer qualifies.
- Enough hard drive space: Though most Hackintosh guides recommend using an empty hard drive, for this guide, you can use a hard drive that already has Windows installed on it. Just make sure there's enough empty space in the hard drive to fit Mac OS X. I personally recommend at least 100 GB, though 20 GB is around the bare minimum.
- Mac OS X Snow Leopard installation DVD ($20): The method used by this guide requires the retail DVD for Mac OS X Snow Leopard.
- Nawcom's ModCD (Free): ModCD is a boot CD that allows you to boot the retail Snow Leopard DVD. To burn ModCD onto a CD, you need an empty CD and a CD/DVD/Bluray drive that can burn CDs (just about every drive can burn CDs nowadays).
- Mac OS X 10.6.8 Combo Update (Free - 500 MB): Optional; you can update Mac OS X after you finish the initial installation with ModCD. Your Hackintosh probably won't have internet after your initial installation, so you probably want to download this update onto the extra USB drive.
- Multibeast Snow Leopard Edition (Free - 22 MB): Multibeast is a collection of kext files that your Hackintosh will need to run properly, after the initial installation. Download it onto a USB drive, along with the combo update. You need to register an account on tonymacx86.com to download Multibeast. Be sure to download the Snow Leopard edition, not the Lion edition.
1. Create a hard drive partition for Mac OS X
Boot into Windows Vista or Windows 7, and type "partition" into your Start Menu search bar. Choose "Create and Format hard drive partitions" to open the Disk Management utility in Windows.
You will see a bar displaying the partitions in your hard drive. Right-click on the emptiest partition in the hard drive that you want to install OS X on, and click "Shrink". This will allow you to shrink the size of that partition, so that you have extra space on your hard drive to create a new partition for Mac OS X.
2. Setting up your computer
Be sure to follow the standard setup procedures for Hackintoshes, and adjust your BIOS settings accordingly.
3. Using ModCD to run your Mac OS X Retail Installation Disk
You will need to burn ModCD onto a CD. On Windows 7 and Mac OS X, burning capabilities are built-in to the operating system-- just insert an empty CD into your DVD/Bluray drive, right-click on the ModCD file, and burn it. If you're using Windows XP or Vista, you will need to use a program such as ImgBurn.
It's time to begin. Turn off your soon-to-be Hackintosh. Insert ModCD into the DVD/Bluray drive, and boot the computer. You should come up to a screen with the nawcom logo on top. Don't do anything yet.
In the worst case scenarios, instead of loading the Mac OS X installer, you may end up at a dark gray screen that tells you to restart your computer (a kernel panic), or you may end up with a small crossed-out sign (a loading error). If you get a kernel panic/loading error (or if the Mac OS X installer simply won't start within 30 minutes), you'll need to enter some boot flags.
To enter boot flags, first put ModCD back into your Bluray/DVD drive and manually restart your computer by pressing your computer's power button. Then, once you're reinserted the Snow Leopard install DVD and pressed F5 to refresh the ModCD menu, try typing any necessary boot flags before pressing the enter/return key. Check out this list of common boot flags for reference (PCIRootUID=1 -v -x is one popular combination of boot flags).
4. Installing OSX
Normally, the installation screen will be loaded within a few minutes (5-10 minutes for me). You will eventually come up to a page that asks you for a "destination" for your Mac install. Oh no, the page is blank! We'll have to fix that. To do this, start up Disk Utility (located under the Utilities menu in the top bar).
Click the "Customize" button on the bottom left of the Install Summary screen, and uncheck everything under the CUSTOM_OPTIONS section. These are extra drivers and configuration files that are added by ModCD. Unless you're 100% sure that your Hackintosh will need these, it's simpler and easier just to install this stuff later on in the process, with Multibeast. The only exception is if you are using an AMD processor (in which case, install the Legacy Kernel).
5. Post-Installation: Updating and Multibeast
You have now installed Mac OS X. But you're not done yet. In order to get everything working right on your Hackintosh, you'll have to do some post-installation, by updating Mac OS X and installing some extra drivers and configuration files with Multibeast. For more details, check out Step 5 of our standard Snow Leopard installation guide.
P.S. All of the normal Windows fixes will still need to be applied. Check out this fix to make Windows boot properly, and check out this fix to sync the clocks between Windows and Mac OS X.
when i run the cd it goes to postbootmounter::start and hangs. i cant even debug.
ReplyDeleterunning on a hp 6000 pro sff
Hi.
ReplyDeleteTrying this on a HP 4530s i5 (2450). OSX install disk says it 'can't modify the partition map' when I try to change things in Disk Utility. Any way to get past this?
Thanks.
Haven't had much luck with tonymacx86 thread for installing to 4530s.
The MBR patch used by nawcom's ModCD only allows Mac OS X to install itself onto a premade MBR partition. Disk Utility still can't manage hard disks with a MBR partition. You have to create the partitions beforehand, either in Windows or Linux.
DeleteThanks for the guide! Been giving it a try for the last few days on my Thinkpad T410, iCore 5 M520 CPU. I managed to install SL retail 10.6.3 with ModCD, but can't get it to dual boot from the HDD. Updated to 10.6.7 and ran Easybeast following install. Also used EasyBCD to set the MBR store. It loads win7 fine, but hangs on the Easybeast (Chimera?) loader- the apple screen with the round counter... Funny that SL boots from ModCD, using busratio=18 flag, but iBoot won't do it, with that same flag. Any tips would help a lot =)
ReplyDeleteHi Guys,
ReplyDeletegood guide, but with me it just doesn't work. I install 7, partition the drive, boot with modcd, everything fine, but when i want to erase the partition with diskutility it always says error: cant change the partition table...or at least something like that. I'm using 10.6 retail.
Any suggestions?
Ben
I can't do it, after erasing the partition I click Continue but it says I have to change the partition map to GUID. But this post says nawcom ModCD makes it work on MBR! What now?
ReplyDeleteWas wondering if someone could help me. I ran the installer with the Nawcom ModCD and everything went as planned. After the install completed I rebooted with the ModCD. After the ModCD loads, I do not have an option to select my Snow Leopard install. Any ideas? Am I doing something wrong?
ReplyDeleteMe too, did you fixed it?
DeleteBrilliant. Can I follow this method to do a ML install on a machine with windows 8 already installed. Anything different I need to use/do?
ReplyDeleteiBoot only works with Mac OS X Snow Leopard. To install Mountain Lion on a hard drive with Windows already installed, follow our Mountain Lion guide with Unibeast instead.
DeleteHmm i got a problem. I boot the modCD and everythings works fine. I insert the retail snow leopard disk and press F5 and the disk gets detected and when i press enter the new text comes up. Then it stands press enter to continue(as you describe) but my computer just restarts and nothing happends. Any idea?
ReplyDeleteThis error is very confusing. Time by time I face this problem because I mostly forget this
ReplyDeletesolution. I recenlty had this issue with an old iMac G4. It ended up the following way.
After partitioning the volume, you have to click Erase and change the partition type from
DOS to Mac OSX journaled. I hope this will help everybody there because no one in most of
the solutions forums point to these steps. This solution might work with newer Mac computers too.
Khan
Tech from Mac Repair Oakville>
i just finished installing this on a PHENOM 965 3.4 with a M5A78L-M LX V2 and it was shockingly easy with nawcom 0.3.2
ReplyDeletei tried for two hours with iboot legacy and it was hopeless - i was putting in a bunch of book flags and it would still crash. then with nawcom it worked without any boot flags on the first try !
Since iBoot didnt work for me, i came accross this bootloader NawcomMod and it worked. I got all the way to #4 past Disk Utility and Customize. After i hit install that's when my dillema starts. It just hangs there saying, "installing MacOsX on snow leopard" - for hours (like 5) and nothing happens. What could be causing this hang preventing me to advance on the next step?
ReplyDeleteInstalling on Dell Inspiron 4600