Dr. Watz0n Posted August 29, 2009 Share Posted August 29, 2009 After reading several guides around the net, including this forum in particular, I was unable to find an installation method for Snow Leopard (build 10A432) that was easy, guaranteed to work, or that worked with my particular motherboard (an MS-7525 [boston]). Today was the first chance I had to open up my (yes, retail) copy of Snow Leopard, and I set to work on finding a way to install the new OS onto my system (on an external hard drive). First off, let me make myself clear: this worked for me, with no data loss. That being said, the chances of this working for you as it has for me are up in the air. I’m making no promises, so proceed at your own risk. Secondly, you are going to need a few things in order to (hopefully) get this to work as intended: - A PC capable of running Mac OS X Leopard - A Snow Leopard installation/upgrade DVD - A (8GB?) Thumb Drive - A currently installed version of Mac OS X (Tiger or Leopard will probably work, as all we need is Disk Utility and Installer) - This package: Snow Leopard Pack (mod note: link removed, please don't use redirects) My current system specifications are as follows: - MSI MS-7525 motherboard - External hard drive (250GB); I did not touch my internal (which runs Windows 7) - 4GB DDR2 RAM - Intel Pentium Dual Core processor at 1.8Ghz - nVidia GeForce 7300GT 256MB video card - Netgear WG111v3 USB wireless adapter First thing is first: boot into Leopard or Tiger. If you do not have a working OS X install, I am not sure how to continue, so I guess that leaves you out of luck. Anyway, once inside Leopard, open up Disk Utility. Step 1: Preparing Your Drives If you wish to install Snow Leopard onto its own hard disk, simply select the hard drive, partition it with 1 partition, and make sure it is set to GUID partition table and not Master Boot Record. If you wish to install this to a partition on your current hard drive, make sure you have it made (or shrink your current one via DU), and perform an erase and call it “Snow Leopardâ€. Once you have prepared your drives, proceed to step 2. Step 2: Installing Snow Leopard At first, I had attempted to boot into the Snow Leopard DVD installer using various methods, but unfortunately, failed. As such, I was forced to use the OSInstall.mpkg installation package from the Snow Leopard DVD in order to install Snow Leopard to the new hard drive/partition. To get to this file, open up your “Mac OS X Installer†DVD/DMG, and in Finder, and select ‘Go’. In the path box, enter: “System/Installation/Packagesâ€. Now, select the OSInstall.mpkg file and run it. Once Installer opens, select the drive you wish to install Snow Leopard to (“Snow Leopard†drive/partition), and continue on to install. Note: I did not install anything but the Essentials. Feel free to try installing other components (Rosetta, Quicktime 7, etc.) at your own risk. The installation usually takes 20-30 minutes, and once it’s done, proceed to Step 3. Step 3: The Possibly Not Needed Step Seeing as though I was unable to boot from the Snow Leopard installation DVD, I thought “what if I booted from my thumb drive with the installer DVD copied to it?†So, I used Disk Utility to ‘Restore’ the Mac OS X Install DVD to the thumb drive. You need an 8GB thumb drive in order to do this. Once it finished copying, I then used the PC EFI v10 file included in the Snow Leopard Pack (SL Pack) I asked you to download prior to beginning this. I simply installed it onto my thumb drive, and that was that. Step 4: Did It Work? I restarted my machine and selected to boot from my thumb drive, not the hard drive/partition Snow Leopard was installed to. Why? Well, you need to use the Chameleon 2 RC1 patched for Snow Leopard boot loader that we installed to the thumb drive. Select the “Snow Leopard†drive from the Chamelon screen, and before pressing enter, type: ‘-v –x32’. This boots into Snow Leopard in Verbose and 32 bit mode. I had attempted to boot without this command beforehand, and it kernel panicked right after the “Welcome†video. Every time I have booted from the command since, I have not Kernel Panicked (well, mostly). If things worked, you should find yourself watching the Welcome video and entering your registration details. Once that’s done, you should be in Snow Leopard! Step 5: Some Notes As I said earlier, this method worked for me, and it may not have worked for you. Sorry, I tried. I really don’t know much about this whole hackintosh thing to be honest. My prior experience has been owning an older PowerMac G3 and a retail install of OS X Leopard on my PC. That’s pretty much it. This happened by luck and chance, and it’s more than I asked for. For some reason, Snow Leopard recognized my graphics card (sort of), so as soon as I booted, I had full Quartz Extreme and Core Image support, as well as all resolutions available for my card. What wasn’t working was sound (as always), and my wireless, USB adaptor. I tried installing both ‘drivers’ (kexts) from their installers, but they both cased my system to kernel panic. But, after using the ‘Package Contents’ option from the context menu, I simply used the lower level installer package to install the software, and it worked. Audio I am still working on, and I will update you when that works. Now, there are some caveats. First off, it has no idea what my processor is. It lists it as a 3.6 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, when in reality, it is just a 1.8 Ghz dual core Pentium. That being said, it’s no big deal. Also, and probably due to Chamelon/PC EFI, it recognizes my graphics card as an nVidia GeForce 9800 GTX EFI. Once again, oh well. It is not affecting performance, at least in the past hour, so I’m not worried. Also, my thumb drives/other hard drive paritions show up as shared drives, which is still just a minor issue. I have yet to play around with the system. As I continue to explore and test various applications and extensions, I will be sure to let you know how everything is working. Credits: Snow Leopard Pack – d00m42 Everyone else who has posted some sort of idea on how to install Snow Leopard! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobdurfob Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 So installing with a retail (bought from Amazon) disc on a pc would work right? No need for an hacked version? Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigpoppa206 Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 Rin Disk Utility and see if you have an error. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Watz0n Posted August 30, 2009 Author Share Posted August 30, 2009 Update I have, in some sort of weird twist of reality, perfected the process on my machine. Just like my previous disclaimer, I am not saying this will work for you, so proceed at your own risk. Following the steps I outlined previously, the trick seems to be booting using the files in the "Extra" folder of the Snow Leopard Pack we downloaded earlier. As such, this is what I did after performing the installation again: 1. Booted into Snow Leopard using "-v -x32" flags, proceeded to complete registration. 2. DELETED my basic Leopard installation, seeing as though I had just used it to set up Snow Leopard. By erasing the partition, I also lost my Chameleon setup on the drive. So… 3. Using the PC EFI found in the Snow Leopard Pack, install it to your new Snow Leopard setup. Once it is completed, drag the contents of the "Extra" folder in the SL Pack into the "Extra" folder in the base directory of your Snow Leopard installation. 4. Reboot, select the drive to boot from if it isn't your primary, and then using the same "-v -x32" flags, boot the Snow Leopard partition/drive. For me at least, it all worked out great. I was able to bypass booting from my thumb drive and boot from my base partition. @bobdurfob: Yes, in theory. You can't actually boot from the Snow Leopard DVD (at least from my experience), but you can use it inside a current Leopard/Tiger(?) installation to install Snow Leopard to a separate drive or partition. @bigpoppa206: What exactly do you mean? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stezy Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 Sweet, I got a MS-7502 motherboard, so I'm eager to try this out. I'll post the vericts after I finished tinckering EDIT: working, major thanks to you dude Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djek123 Posted September 2, 2009 Share Posted September 2, 2009 Hi, I wanted to say a big thanks to you. I have followed your steps and in 35 minutes I had a full working system. I am running a GA-EP35-DS3 motherboard. Cheers After reading several guides around the net, including this forum in particular, I was unable to find an installation method for Snow Leopard (build 10A432) that was easy, guaranteed to work, or that worked with my particular motherboard (an MS-7525 [boston]). Today was the first chance I had to open up my (yes, retail) copy of Snow Leopard, and I set to work on finding a way to install the new OS onto my system (on an external hard drive). First off, let me make myself clear: this worked for me, with no data loss. That being said, the chances of this working for you as it has for me are up in the air. I’m making no promises, so proceed at your own risk. Secondly, you are going to need a few things in order to (hopefully) get this to work as intended: - A PC capable of running Mac OS X Leopard - A Snow Leopard installation/upgrade DVD - A (8GB?) Thumb Drive - A currently installed version of Mac OS X (Tiger or Leopard will probably work, as all we need is Disk Utility and Installer) - This package: Snow Leopard Pack My current system specifications are as follows: - MSI MS-7525 motherboard - External hard drive (250GB); I did not touch my internal (which runs Windows 7) - 4GB DDR2 RAM - Intel Pentium Dual Core processor at 1.8Ghz - nVidia GeForce 7300GT 256MB video card - Netgear WG111v3 USB wireless adapter First thing is first: boot into Leopard or Tiger. If you do not have a working OS X install, I am not sure how to continue, so I guess that leaves you out of luck. Anyway, once inside Leopard, open up Disk Utility. Step 1: Preparing Your Drives If you wish to install Snow Leopard onto its own hard disk, simply select the hard drive, partition it with 1 partition, and make sure it is set to GUID partition table and not Master Boot Record. If you wish to install this to a partition on your current hard drive, make sure you have it made (or shrink your current one via DU), and perform an erase and call it “Snow Leopard”. Once you have prepared your drives, proceed to step 2. Step 2: Installing Snow Leopard At first, I had attempted to boot into the Snow Leopard DVD installer using various methods, but unfortunately, failed. As such, I was forced to use the OSInstall.mpkg installation package from the Snow Leopard DVD in order to install Snow Leopard to the new hard drive/partition. To get to this file, open up your “Mac OS X Installer” DVD/DMG, and in Finder, and select ‘Go’. In the path box, enter: “System/Installation/Packages”. Now, select the OSInstall.mpkg file and run it. Once Installer opens, select the drive you wish to install Snow Leopard to (“Snow Leopard” drive/partition), and continue on to install. Note: I did not install anything but the Essentials. Feel free to try installing other components (Rosetta, Quicktime 7, etc.) at your own risk. The installation usually takes 20-30 minutes, and once it’s done, proceed to Step 3. Step 3: The Possibly Not Needed Step Seeing as though I was unable to boot from the Snow Leopard installation DVD, I thought “what if I booted from my thumb drive with the installer DVD copied to it?” So, I used Disk Utility to ‘Restore’ the Mac OS X Install DVD to the thumb drive. You need an 8GB thumb drive in order to do this. Once it finished copying, I then used the PC EFI v10 file included in the Snow Leopard Pack (SL Pack) I asked you to download prior to beginning this. I simply installed it onto my thumb drive, and that was that. Step 4: Did It Work? I restarted my machine and selected to boot from my thumb drive, not the hard drive/partition Snow Leopard was installed to. Why? Well, you need to use the Chameleon 2 RC1 patched for Snow Leopard boot loader that we installed to the thumb drive. Select the “Snow Leopard” drive from the Chamelon screen, and before pressing enter, type: ‘-v –x32’. This boots into Snow Leopard in Verbose and 32 bit mode. I had attempted to boot without this command beforehand, and it kernel panicked right after the “Welcome” video. Every time I have booted from the command since, I have not Kernel Panicked (well, mostly). If things worked, you should find yourself watching the Welcome video and entering your registration details. Once that’s done, you should be in Snow Leopard! Step 5: Some Notes As I said earlier, this method worked for me, and it may not have worked for you. Sorry, I tried. I really don’t know much about this whole hackintosh thing to be honest. My prior experience has been owning an older PowerMac G3 and a retail install of OS X Leopard on my PC. That’s pretty much it. This happened by luck and chance, and it’s more than I asked for. For some reason, Snow Leopard recognized my graphics card (sort of), so as soon as I booted, I had full Quartz Extreme and Core Image support, as well as all resolutions available for my card. What wasn’t working was sound (as always), and my wireless, USB adaptor. I tried installing both ‘drivers’ (kexts) from their installers, but they both cased my system to kernel panic. But, after using the ‘Package Contents’ option from the context menu, I simply used the lower level installer package to install the software, and it worked. Audio I am still working on, and I will update you when that works. Now, there are some caveats. First off, it has no idea what my processor is. It lists it as a 3.6 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, when in reality, it is just a 1.8 Ghz dual core Pentium. That being said, it’s no big deal. Also, and probably due to Chamelon/PC EFI, it recognizes my graphics card as an nVidia GeForce 9800 GTX EFI. Once again, oh well. It is not affecting performance, at least in the past hour, so I’m not worried. Also, my thumb drives/other hard drive paritions show up as shared drives, which is still just a minor issue. I have yet to play around with the system. As I continue to explore and test various applications and extensions, I will be sure to let you know how everything is working. Credits: Snow Leopard Pack – d00m42 Everyone else who has posted some sort of idea on how to install Snow Leopard! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sergio.mbravo Posted November 16, 2009 Share Posted November 16, 2009 Hey! great tutorial I've got ( luckily ) the same motherboard and i followed all the steps but i cant manage to boot from the usb drive. I got in the bios and set the usb drives as prior before booting the HDD. Although that, I can't boot it from there. As I had this problem, what i did was to restore the SL DVD in a HD and use it like you use the USB, but i get a KP. Any solution? thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IlyasNeedHelp Posted February 26, 2010 Share Posted February 26, 2010 Anyone can help me please!? I Never owned a MAC and never Installed it on a PC. And i want to ask if i extermly need Leopard or i can just Install Snow Leopard directly without needing Leopard? If i can directly install snow leopard please give me a easy guide Motherboard:MS-7525 CPU:Intel E2220 2.40GHZX2 GPU:Nvidia 8500GT Sound:Realtek HD Please help me out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riclx79 Posted February 26, 2010 Share Posted February 26, 2010 hello! first of all i m sorry to do my post as a reply to this topic, but i cant see to find the way to post a new topic. i me trying to install snow leopard 10.6, on my 64bits amd, and when a try to install, i start the pc from the disk, and i get stuck with this "still waiting for root device". i have no idea what this means or how to solve it... i m new at this, and without many knowledge of computers at this level... i made a sucessful instalation on my laptop an acer aspire 5610 with leopard 10.5.2... at first i tryed to install 10.5.2... on my pc... but i dont know why, it didnt recognize me the disk where i wanted to make the instalation... i have 2 disk... one sata partioned with windows seven, and one ide for media stuff... and it only recognized the ide... when i go to disk management that disk.. as the indication of "system", dont know why... and maybe it has nothing to do with it... by not being able to solve this... after searching to several foruns... i downloaded snow leopard 10.6.1-10.6.2 sse2 sse 3 intel amd by hazard ( just for you to identify what i m trying to install) i burn the disk... launch with -v... and i get stuck on this "still waiting for root device".... could please someone give me a help... my pc is an amd athlon 64 x2 dual core 4000+ dont know exactly what to describe so anyone can lend me a hand... since i have no idea of this stuff... thanks a lot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts