Hackintosh - transforming your PC into a Hack Pro in one hour

This installation how-to is a Yauhui's Special article. The author does NOT warrant and shall not be held liable for any mishaps.

WHAT YOU NEED:

-Internet connection
-Mac-to-be computer, with Windows/Linux/whatever OS installed
-another Windows computer with WinRAR installed
-FAT32 thumbdrive
-80GB SATA/PATA hard disk

1) Don’t download iAtkos, it has less seeders. Search for Kalyway 10.5.2 Intel/AMD SSE2/SSE3 on Mininova.

2) Download it, and burn the ISO to a DVD using BurnCDCC (it’s free, Google it).

3) Burn at 2x or 4x speed! This is VERY important.

4) Now to install: I’ve found that things are easier if you install Leo on a secondary hard drive. Go out and buy an 80gig SATA or PATA hard drive (I had problems with IDE hard drives).

5) Do not format the hard drive in Windows yet! Pop in the Hackintosh disc and boot from it via the BIOS.

6) When the Darwin prompt appears, and the countdown begins, hit F8 and type in -v, then press Enter.

7) Select “English”, then proceed.

8) At the “Mac OS X Leopard Installation” screen, do not click “Continue” just yet! At the top of the screen, there should be “Utilities”. Click on that, then Disk Utility.

9) Right-click on the new hard disk and format it as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). For the name, type in anything that’s one-worded, or else future patching will not work. I typed in “Leopard”.

10) Formatting should take a few seconds. Once done, quit Disk Utility and click on Continue to begin installation.

11) Select the volume named Leopard (or whatever name you typed in while formatting). Proceed.

12) The installer will check the disc for consistency. Although this is not necessary, I recommend you wait for the check to finish. Or else, click on Skip.

13) Let the installation begin. Takes about 20minutes on my Pentium D computer.

14) Once done, restart the computer. Quickly enter the BIOS page.

15) Set the boot configuration so that the Leopard hard disk boots BEFORE the CD drive.

16) Save and exit. The Darwin prompt should appear now. Press F8 and type in -s (for single-user mode).

17) Some lines should scroll past the screen. After that, type in “/sbin/mount -uw /” (without the quotation marks) and press enter.

18) Then, type in “/movevideodrivers” and hit enter. This should fix any blank/blue screen errors.

19) Now type “exit” and let Leopard start. You should see a gray screen with the Apple logo. Wait for awhile.

20) A few prompts should appear. Follow the instructions.

21) After all that, you should be on the Leopard desktop. Wait, dont jump with joy just yet! You’ll need to patch Leopard to start without the DVD. Go here for the patch (download it on a Windows machine):

http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=75974&st=0&p=536493&#entry536493

22) Unzip it. Rename the FAT32 thumbdrive as “USB”. Copy all the contents of the patch archive to the thumbdrive root folder.

23) Plug it into the Mac machine, and open Terminal (in the Utilities folder).

24) Type in (without the quotation marks) “cd /Volumes/USB”

25) Then, type in “./patch.sh Leopard” (replace “Leopard” with the name of your Mac volume)

26) Follow the instructions. Do not install the original Mac core kernals or whatsoever.

27) Now, remove the USB thumbdrive and the Leopard DVD, and restart the computer.

28) Enter the BIOS settings and have the CD drive boot first. Save and exit.

28) You should be looking at the Darwin boot prompt again. Let the countdown finish and you SHOULD be in Leopard.

WARNINGS:

-Do not install any bootloaders. To boot into either Windows/Mac, just switch the boot order of the two hard disks.

-Do not update to 10.5.5 (many failed Hackintoshs are due to this).

NOTES:

-Sound and networking might not work.

-Mac OS X Leopard will identify your computer as a Mac Pro.

Happy experimenting!