If you're running macOS 10.14 Mojave or earlier, proceed to step 16. If you're running macOS 10.15 Catalina or macOS 11 Big Sur, skip to step 19. The following screen asks you to give Malwarebytes permission to enable Real-Time Protection on your Mac. In the System Extension Blocked, pop-up window, click Open Security Preferences. Install Mac OS X El Capitan 10.11 on Vmware. There are several kinds or versions of Mac OS X, as we have talked about installing about Mac OS X Yosemite, Mac OS X Mavericks. Install macOS High Sierra 10.13 on VMware Step by Step; Before starting the installation, you need to download Mac OS El Capitan iso image and unlocker 208 from the.
Warning: Please follow these instructions at your own risk. I am not responsible for any damage or information loss that could result from following this guide. Also, note that installing OS X on PC is illegal. Please buy a real Mac if you're satisfied with your Hackintosh. This guide is for evaluation purposes only.
Requirements
- An Intel-based PC with UEFI bios
- A USB flash drive with at least 16GB capacity
- A dedicated hard drive (SSD highly recommended)
- A computer running OS X (10.9 or later) for preparing the installation USB flash drive
I chose to avoid the UniBeast installer (by Tonymacx86) because of its commercialized nature, as described here. Here is a vanilla guide to installing El Capitan on your PC!
Preparing the USB Installation Drive
First things first. We need to prepare a USB thumb drive that will contain the installation files as well as the bootloader and custom kexts for our specific Hackintosh build.
Macos 10.11 Usb Installer
Download El Capitan from the Mac App Store
Head over to your existing OS X environment running 10.9 or later and open the Mac App Store.
Search for 'El Capitan' and click Download. The download is completely free if you're running OS X 10.9+.
Wait for the download to finish (this could take some time).
Format the USB Drive
Open Disk Utility in Applications/Utilities and locate your USB device. Make sure you've backed up anything important on that drive as it will be erased forever.
Select it, and then on the right, click the partition tab.
- Click Curent Layout and change it to 1 Partition.
- Set the Name to USB.
- Set the Format to Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
- Click Options and select GUID Partition Table.
Click Apply to format the drive.
Copy the Installation Files to the USB Drive
Now that we've downloaded the installation files from the Mac App Store and formatted our USB drive, let's copy the installation files to it.
Run the following command in the Terminal (Applications/Utilities):
The command will run a script inside the Install OS X El Capitan application that will copy the installation files to the USB drive.
This process takes about 15 minutes. Go out for a quick run, or a hamburger, or both. When you come back, it should have finished.
Installing a Bootloader
If you tried to boot from the USB drive as is after the previous step on a PC, it wouldn't work. We need a bootloader that makes it possible to boot OS X on x86 and x86_64 PCs.
There are 3 popular bootloaders to choose from.
- Clover
- Chameleon
- Chimera
I went with Clover as it seems to be the most popular choice among other El Capitan installers, mostly for the following reasons:
Clover is an open-source EFI-based bootloader created on Apr 4, 2011. It has a totally different approach from Chameleon and Chimera. It can emulate the EFI portion present on real Macs and boot the OS from there instead of using the regular legacy BIOS approach used by Chameleon and Chimera. For many, Clover is considered the next-gen bootloader and soon it will become the only choice since BIOS in being replaced by UEFI in every new motherboard. One big feature of Clover is that iMessage, iCloud, the Mac App Store works along with Find My Mac, Back To My Mac and FileVault since Clover can use the EFI partition. (Read more)
Install Clover on Your USB Drive
Installing Clover on your USB drive is relatively easy. It involves running an installation wizard and selecting some options.
Download the latest Clover installer from here.
- Run the installer.
- Click Continue twice.
- Click Change Install Location and set it to your formatted USB drive.
- Click Customize and check the following options:
- [x] Install for UEFI booting only
- [x] Install Clover in the ESP
- [ ] Drivers64UEFI
- [x] OsxAptioFixDrv-64 - fixes memory map created by AMI Aptio EFI. Booting OS X is impossible otherwise.
- Click Install and wait for the installation to finish. It shouldn't take more than a minute.
Copy Essential Kexts to the USB Drive
Next, we'll need to copy some kexts (kernal extensions, similar to drivers on Windows) to the USB drive.
- FakeSMC.kext - open source SMC device driver/emulator developed by netkas. Tricks OS X into thinking it's installed on Apple hardware. Absolutely required for Hackintosh installation.
- NullCPUPowerManagement.kext - disables AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement.kext which may cause kernel panics when you try to boot from the USB drive. It's optional, copy it only if you get an AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement-related kernel panic.
- ApplePS2Controller.kext and AppleACPIPS2Nub.kext - adds support for PS2 devices (such as PS2 keyboard/mouse). They're optional, copy them only if you still use PS2 devices.
Download these files from here and copy them to the EFI mounted volume at /EFI/Clover/kexts/10.11/.
Now that the installation USB drive is ready, let's install OS X El Capitan!
Boot from the USB Drive
Restart your computer and boot from the USB drive (Press Esc/F8/Del to access the boot selection menu).
Use the arrow keys to select Boot OS X Install from Install OS X El Capitan (It should be selected by default). Press the spacebar and select Boot Mac OS X in verbose mode. Verbose mode means that you'll be able to see exactly what's going on under the hood as OS X attempts to boot up its installer. You'll be able to see the exact error message if booting fails.
Press Enter and cross your fingers. Clover will now boot the installer from your USB drive. This could take some time, in my case, it takes around 5 minutes (Don't worry -- the startup time is around 5 seconds after installing on an SSD).
Did it fail?
It's more than likely that the boot will fail. Don't panic (ha-ha), as kernel panics usually mean that you forgot to copy an essential kext to the EFI partition. Look up the exact error you're getting before the boot log comes to an end and search Google for a solution.
Once you find an additional kext that your system needs, you'd attempt to copy it to the EFI volume, only to discover that it's gone! Not to worry, it's just unmounted and hidden. Follow this guide to mount the hidden partition, and then, follow the Copy Essential Kexts section above to copy it to the USB drive's EFI partition.
Format the Target Hard Drive
Once the installation wizard boots, the next step is to prepare the hard drive that you want to install OS X on.
Click Continue, followed by Disk Utility.
Select the target drive to install to (not the USB drive!) and click the Erase button. Make sure to back up anything important on that drive, as it will be deleted forever.
- Set the Name to El Capitan.
- Set the Format to OS X Extended (Journaled).
- Set the Scheme to GUID Partition Map.
Click Erase to format the drive.
Install OS X to the Target Drive
Exit the Disk Utility and click Install OS X.
Click Show All Disks and select the drive you just formatted to install OS X on it. Finally, click Install.
The process takes about 25 minutes. Be patient. For me, it hung at the end ('1 second remaining') for around 5 minutes. Don't be tempted to reset or cancel the installation.
When that's done, the system will reboot. Make sure to boot from the USB device again, and select Boot OS X Install from Install OS X El Capitan once again, in verbose mode. The installation is a two-part process that continues once you re-boot into the USB drive.
Finally, after about 25 more minutes, OS X El Capitan should be successfully installed on the target drive.
Boot into El Capitan via the USB Device
After the second reboot, boot from the USB device once again, but this time, select Boot OS X from El Capitan, and select verbose mode.
Press Enter and cross your fingers again. If all goes well, you'll be presented with the setup wizard:
Macos El Capitan Installer App
Take a minute to set up your new Hackintosh. Once you're done, there are a few things you need to do to finish off the installation.
Reinstall Clover on the Hackintosh Drive
In the previous step, we used Clover on our USB drive to boot our Hackintosh. This is fine, but most of us aren't going to keep that USB drive plugged in forever. Let's make it possible to boot El Capitan independently by reinstalling Clover on it.
Go back up to the Install Clover on Your USB Drive section and follow the steps again, but this time, select your El Capitan volume instead of the USB drive.
Once again, copy the essential kexts to the EFI partition that shows up after installing Clover.
Finally, make sure to add Clover EFI boot options which is possible by pressing Clover Boot Options in the Clover boot window (if there are 2 boot options -- find the one for your SATA drive). I literally spent 3 hours figuring out why Clover would not boot when I disconnected the USB drive before I figured out that I need to manually add the EFI boot options.
Now you'll be able to boot directly from the El Capitan hard drive, as it should be!
Audio and Networking
If you're lucky, audio and networking will work right out of the box. If not, you're on your own from here. You'll need to research your exact hardware (by using System Information in Applications/Utilities) and searching Google to find the right kext or installer to make it work on El Capitan.
Clover Themes
The default Clover theme is pretty ugly (no offense). Check out this theme database to improve Clover's appearance.
This is YosemiteLogin by xenatt:
Enjoy!
That's it! Enjoy your new Hackintosh, and if you absolutely love it, consider buying a Mac!
A bootable installer is a special type of media that can be used to reinstall operating system or fix system issues that never be solved in usual way. When there is something with your Mac, or you urgently need to upgrade your Mac to the latest version of macOS, a bootable installer could be a great help.
This tutorial tells you how to easily create a bootable installer for macOS on both Windows and Mac.
Before getting started, you should know there is only two types of installation media for macOS. One is the official macOS installation app, which is only available from Mac App Store. The other is macOS dmg file, which is made by third-party developers or system administrators.
Part 1. Create a Bootable Installer for macOS on Mac
macOS is the native operating system for all Mac computers. And Apple provides an official tool to create bootable USB installer from macOS installation app with the help of Terminal command, which is totally free. In addition, it is also possible to make a bootable macOS installer from DMG file. We will show examples for both tactics.
Create a Bootable Installer for macOS with Official App
This is the most reliable way to make bootable macOS installer on Mac as it is backed by Apple. It is completely free and no need to download additional software for this purpose.
First, download macOS from Mac App Store. Just launch App Store app on your Mac and search for the macOS name. However, only the most recent versions are available for download, including Big Sur, Catalina, Mojave and High Sierra. After that, click the Get button (Big Sur as example) to download the installation app on your Mac.
The downloading process will take more than 15 minutes as the file size is pretty big (Over 8GB). When it is completed, you will see a Install macOS [version name] app in Application folder.
Now, insert an USB drive into Mac. If everything goes fine, you will see the drive name in left sidebar of Finder app. Then, open Terminal app and type the following command to find the actual volume name of USB drive, which will be used in next step: ls /Volumes/
In above example, the volume name of my USB drive is Big Sur.
Finally, copy one of the following commands to Terminal and change the volume name. Click Enter to start creating a bootable installer for macOS.
Big Sur: sudo /Applications/Install macOS Big Sur.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Big Sur
Catalina: sudo /Applications/Install macOS Catalina.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Big Sur
Mojave: sudo /Applications/Install macOS Mojave.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Big Sur
High Sierra: sudo /Applications/Install macOS High Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Big Sur
You have to wait at least 10 minutes for the above task to be finished. After that, you can use the bootable USB installer for macOS reinstallation, downgrade or upgrade.
Download Os 10.11
Create a Bootable Installer for macOS without Terminal
If you are scared of using text commands in Terminal, please don't worry. There are still two free GUI app available for this task. One is MDS and the other is Disk Marker X. We will go with MDS first.
MDS is popular Mac deploying tool developed by Twocanoes. It can help you set up Mac, download macOS, create bootable macOS installer, install macOS and configure macOS in just a few seconds. Most importantly, it is built upon a modern graphics user interface, making it super easy to use.
First, download MDS from this link and install the app on your Mac. Once loaded, navigate the left sidebar and find go to Download macOS, where you can download the desired macOS. Currently available versions are Big Sur, Catalina, Mojave and High Serria.
After download, please move to Create macOS Installer section. Please select the macOS installer you just downloaded and a target USB drive. Finally, click the Create button to begin making a bootable USB installer for macOS.
Disk Marker X is another free app with the sole purpose for creating a bootable macOS disk. It has been available since Mac OS X Lion (10.7) so it is very popular and reputable solution. The only drawback is that it does not support macOS Big Sur. You can create bootable installer from the following OS candidates.:
- macOS Catalina (10.15)
- macOSMojave (10.14)
- macOSHigh Sierra (10.13)
- macOSSierra (10.12)
- OS X EI Capitan (10.11)
- OS X Yosemite (10.10)
- OS X Mavericks (10.9)
- OS X Mountain Lion (10.8)
- OS X Lion (10.7)
The steps are also quite simple. First, download a macOS installation app and open Disk Maker X. Next, select the location of macOS install app and pick up the drive name. Confirm the operation as it will erase the whole disk. Finally, click Erase then create the disk button to start the process.
Create a Bootable Installer for macOS from DMG File
In case, you are unable to download the official macOS installation app, an alternative choice is to make a bootable installer from macOS dmg file, where you can find them on this website or other places on Internet. The software to be used is called UUByte DMG Editor, which works on both Windows and macOS platforms. The details steps will be shown in next section.
Part 2. Create a Bootable Installer for macOS on Windows 10/8/7
Windows, even Windows 10 does not add support for dealing with macOS installation app, which is working on macOS only. If you are on a Windows computer and search for a way to create bootable installer for macOS, the only option is by using macOS DMG file.
So in the coming section, we will demonstrate on how to create a bootable installer for macOS from dmg file on a Windows 10 PC. The steps are the same on Windows 8 and Windows 7. The software we are going to use is UUByte DMG Editor, a cross-platform app that runs well on Windows and Mac.
Step 1: Download a macOS DMG file. These are download links of macOS DMG file, such as Big Sur, Catalina, Mojave, High Sierra, and EI Capitan. For old Mac OS X versions, please download it from Internet.
Step 2: Install DMG Editor on a Windows computer and open it after installation. Now, plug a USB disk into Windows and click Burn button from the main screen. Make sure eject other USB storage devices at the same time.
Step 3: Click the Browse button to locate the macOS dmg file you have downloaded and select the USB drive name in below column.
Step 4: Finally, click the Start button to create a bootable installer for macOS on Windows 10.
Step 5: For a fast USB 3.0 drive, you need to only wait a couple of minutes. For slow USB 2.0 drive, you should wait more than 20 minutes. Please be noted! You will see a notice on screen when the burning process is completed.
There are few tools that are capable of creating macOS bootable USB on a Windows machine. For this task, UUByte DMG Editor is good to go!
Part 3: Install macOS on Mac from Bootable Installer
Eject the USB from Windows 10 computer and plug it into your Mac. Reboot your Mac and keep pressing the Option key at startup to bring up the boot manager. Pick up the drive name and boot up from external USB. After that, follow the screen prompt to start installing macOS from USB on target Mac.
Closing Words
The above is a complete tutorial for creating a bootable installer for macOS on Windows and Mac. It covers all the details and being verified on four different computers (MacBook Pro, iMac, Windows 10 PC and Windows 7 Laptop). Please go ahead and pick up the best method for you.