Mavericks Install DVD

I never tried this to downgrade (and I keep all my mail archived on a local imap server anyway).

But your point is moot: the goal here is not to downgrade but to do a new 10.9 install, which apparently requires a transitional 10.6 install. There's no need to launch any o launch any apps between the migration step under 10.6 and the 10.9 install. And if you create a separate admin account, there's no need even to log in as a migrated/imported user.

Between losing everything because of a virgin reinstall, or maybe some thing because someone's instructions weren't fully tested ... I know which option I'd take.

I've tested Migration from 10.4 to 10.6 (off the internal extracted from my dead ppc Powerbook), and I know the procedure has become even better. And I've been cloning with CCC since 2004; that just works.

I am installing Mavericks from Lion. For some reason the link goes to the

page containing

The hyperlink I intended you yo see.

Copied info below.

OS X: Installing OS X on an external volume

Some disk partition configurations may result in the OS X installer reporting that it could not create a Recovery System. If this happens, and you are unable to install or upgrade OS X, you may need to backup and erase your hard disk first. You can use Internet Recovery, or Recovery Disk Assistant to do this. You can also install OS X on an external volume.

Installing OS X on an external storage device

Use these steps to install OS X from your Mac to an external USB, FireWire, SDHC or SDXC card, or a Thunderbolt storage device.

Note: Normally you should not need to erase your drive to install, upgrade, or reinstall OS X. These steps are designed to help you create an external volume that includes a Recovery system.

Important: These steps erase the storage device. A storage device that is already formatted to support Windows (formatted for FAT or NTFS file systems) will be reformatted. You should back up any important files that are on the device to a different drive.

Attach a USB, FireWire, or Thunderbolt storage device to your computer, or insert an SDHC or SDXC card into the SD card slot if your Mac has one.

Launch Disk Utility, from the /Applications/Utilities folder, then click Continue.

Erase and reformat the storage device

Click the attached storage device where it indicates its size in GB.

Click the Partition tab.

Select "1 Partition" from the Partition Layout pop-up menu.

Click Options. Note: Do not select more than one partition.

Click the GUID Partition Table radio button, then click OK.

In the format field, select Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

Click Apply.

Enter a name for the drive in the Name field.

Verify that you wish to erase and reformat the selected drive by clicking Partition.

After the reformatting process is finished, choose Quit Disk Utility from the Disk Utility menu.

Install OS X

Open the Mac App Store application from the Apple () menu. The Mac App Store normally displays OS X as being "Installed" in the purchases pane. This prevents you from downloading it when your computer already has the same version of OS X installed.

To re-download the installer, press and hold the Option key as you click the Purchases tab. The button to the right of the item you want to download should change to say "Install". If it does not, use Spotlight to search for "Install OS X" on your computer. It's likely you already have a copy of the same OS X installer on a connected drive. (It's normally located in the Applications folder.)

Once you have downloaded and located the installer, use these steps to install OS X on the external volume:

Launch the OS X installer you downloaded from Mac App Store. The installer is normally located in the Applications folder.

Follow the onscreen instructions to complete the OS X installation.

When you are asked to select a drive for installation, click the button "Show All Drives". Be sure you select the external storage device you've connected for this purpose, not your computer's normal startup drive.

Once installation to your external device is complete, you can use it to start up your computer. You can then use Disk Utility, the Mac App Store and the OS X installer to install, or erase and install OS X on the normal startup drive of your computer. Even if you cannot create a Recovery System on your normal startup drive, you can reinstall or repair it at a later date if needed by connecting the external drive you just prepared. Simply hold down the Command and R keys (Command-R) while restarting your computer to start up from the external Recovery System.

Additional Information

The steps in this article erase and reformat the storage device.

Your storage device must have at least 13 GB available (after formatting) to install OS X Lion or later and a Recovery partition.

This article instructs you on setting up a storage device to use the GUID partition scheme and the Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format, which are required to install OS X and a Recovery partition on your external storage device.

You should back up any important files that are on the external storage device to a different drive.

This procedure installs a version of OS X that is compatible with the Mac it was created with. Using this OS X system with a different Mac model may produce unpredictable results.

Your computer's serial number is sent to Apple as part of this process to help authenticate your request to download and install OS X.

Last Modified: Oct 22, 2013

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When you boot from the Mac OS X Installation DVD, you should have an opportunity to select a disk to install onto. If your external disk doesn't show up there, I'd ask Western Digital for help.

Can Mac OS X Lion be installed on blank external drive?

Perhaps, I actually didn't install on a blank drive. Maybe what I did is install Snow from disk and then download and install Lion over Snow. While this apparoach doesn't conincide exactly with installing on a clean drive, I think it is the equivalent.

How do I format my external Western Digital hard drive?

You could also make a third partition: assign 15GB (of the 500GB) for a completely separate, minimum (option- install ) Mac OS X installation , so that you have yet another emergency boot volume . If I were you:

How can I dual boot two OS X versions

( in response to Niel ) Can I install OS X on an external hard drive ? and how can I move from one installation to the other?

Making a Firewire Hard Drive into a bootable Tiger drive

4. After DU finishes with the Erase (should take only a few seconds) quit DU and return to the installer. 5. Proceed to install OS X on the external drive.

Mac OS X v10.3: How can I install without a DVD drive?

... with Mac, OS X 10.1 ... to Tiger ( OS X 10.4 ... ... for you to install it if your ... Adding another 256 MB ... ... *Use an external Firewire DVD Drive ... ... at the article Installing Tiger without a ... ... the original system discs included? ... , before you install a newer version of OS X first install this Firmware Update ... The discs should look exactly ... of the Panther Install CDs is installed , you can ... is installed , use the PPC 10.4.11 Combo Update , to upgrade to the current version. ... discs available on CD

This iso, will it work with virtualbox (like Parallels or VMware)? I tried it out and it started running through would looked like automated prompts then it stopped. I was unsure if it was still doing anything so I let it sit for a few minutes then gave up on it. I really want to have an .iso/.dmg file of Mavericks so I can swap between OS's when one program doesn't work for one but the other.

Why would you waste the time installing an OS, only to install a different OS over that to "switch". Just create another partition and install a different OS to that.

Unlike Windows, you aren't trapped to the C: drive being the only hard drive partition you can start up to. You could have four entirely different versions of OS X on four partitions of the same drive, and choose which one you want to boot to when you turn the Mac on by holding down the Option key.

I have different OS's running, like LInux Mint, Elemental, Kali, Fedora. I would like to have Mavericks too. I am not installing Mavericks over an existing OS I am using it for when something I am trying to do in one of the others that doesn't have support.

KevinCaliboso14 wrote:

can you share me please the soft copy of mac os x 10.6 snow leopard please i need it to use this mavericks update iso. i need the iso of the mac os x 10.6

That's illegal, please don't ask others to do illegal things for you.

Buy your own copy of Snow Leopard, on disk, there is no legal download.

I have read through this post and believe it is in the vein of what I'm experiencing...

I followed the steps to make a iso out of the OSX install file. However, when I mount the iso, it simply opens a finder window showing all the files rather than going right in to the install.

Anything you can think of that I am missing?

Thanks for the great instructions! If I followed your instructions for the bootable USB device with a flash drive formatted in FAT32 or NTFS instead of HFS + journaled, however, would I be able to boot into Mavericks on the correct PC hardware in order to complete a hackintosh installation? Thanks very much. Peace.

MuzikJunky wrote:

Thanks for the great instructions! If I followed your instructions for the bootable USB device with a flash drive formatted in FAT32 or NTFS instead of HFS + journaled, however, would I be able to boot into Mavericks on the correct PC hardware in order to complete a hackintosh installation? Thanks very much. Peace.

No

Pete

I performed all of these commands and it did create Mavericks.iso but it's 8.5 GB in size and in the process of running commands in Terminal I got a message

hdiutil resize -size `hdiutil resize -limits /tmp/Mavericks.sparseimage | tail -n 1 | awk ‘{ print $1 }’`b /tmp/Mavericks.sparseimage

hdiutil: resize: unable to read -size parameter in "b"

Usage: hdiutil resize <sizespec> [options] <image>

hdiutil resize -help

Should I worry about that? Is the .ISO corrupted or smth? I know this is an old thread but I started mine couple of days ago and haven't received answers yet, I need very much to know what to do and what the problem is (if it exists)?

Thanks, would appreciate kindly any your help.

Since Mavericks is no longer available from Apple, was the only legal place to get it, and was never distributed by Apple as an .iso disk image, I take it you got this copy of Mavericks from an illegal torrent site? If so, get rid of it. Torrents of illegal software are almost all guaranteed to contain malware that installs along with what you think you downloaded. Unless, of course, it's okay with you to unknowingly install a key logger so someone can wipe out your bank accounts.

One does not "get" the iso from anywhere. One creates it in order to make a dvd. You have not read this thread properly. No mention has been made of torrents. You can still redownload mavericks from the purchases tab in the mac app store quite legally. Check your facts before making accusations.

Thanks tywebb13 for making it clear for Kurt Lang. Don't get why did he mention torrents and legality at all but whatever... I downloaded Mavericks Installer from MAS Purchases tab. I thought it would make it easy to derive from the context of my message that I meant the ISO I got after running those Terminal commands, it was just its size coupled with that warning (highlighted in Bold font) that raised my doubts. However could I receive an advice/recommendation on the subject of my question? If you find that I should provide more details then I'm ready to do it if you ask.

Cheers 🙂

Perhaps you should check yours. Legally downloading Mavericks from your App Store account downloads a .dmg file, not as .iso.

You should also read more closely. Try again:

I take it you got this copy of Mavericks from an illegal torrent site?

Notice the question mark at the end? That makes it a question of curiosity, not an accusation.