- Download Mavericks Installer
- Download Mavericks Without Installing Software
- Download Mavericks Without App Store
This article has now been superseded by our Bootable Yosemite USB Guide
There are many ways that you can create a bootable Mavericks USB Drive but this seems to me the far easiest way to do so. In this article I will assume that you already have a reasonable grasp of the OSX system and cut out the lengthy text:
I have, in my purchased tab, OSX Mavericks. When I download it, though, it simply tries to run the installer (which Sierra will not allow). Where the heck did this file get downloaded to so that I can place it onto a USB drive or otherwise create a bootable drive to wipe my Mac and reinstall Mavericks? The installer screen will take several minutes to load. If you are trying to install OS X Mavericks on a computer using an AMD processor, you'll have to type the boot flag 'amd' or 'amd64' (without quotation marks)- which flag you need depends on your specific processor, so test one flag a time. Type the boot flag 'amdfx' (also without. Since mavericks is free there really is no reason not to get it from the Mac App store.Download Mavericks from the Mac App store for free.You can go to an Apple Store and download it for free from their free and safe WiFi service. Follow these steps to download Catalina (or any other version of macOS) from the Mac App Store: Click this link to open the Mac App Store on the Catalina page.; Click on Get. Software Update will.
1. Download Mavericks
Mavericks can be downloaded directly from Apple here (make sure you leave the file in the default download location)
2. Prepare a USB Flash Drive (Must be 8Gb or larger)
- Plug the USB Drive in to your Mac and open “Disk Utility” (found under applications / utilities in finder)
- Select the USB Drive
- Select the Erase tab
- Ensure that the format is Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
IMPORTANT – Leave the name as “Untitled”. If you change this the next step won’t work
3. Create the Bootable Mavericks USB Drive
Open up Terminal (found in applications)
Type this in:
sudo /Applications/Install OS X Mavericks.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia –volume /Volumes/Untitled –applicationpath /Applications/Install OS X Mavericks.app –nointeraction
Wait for the process to complete. Done.
4. Boot from the Mavericks USB Drive
Restart your computer and hold down “Option”. You can now select the USB Drive you just created.
This article has now been superseded by our Bootable Yosemite USB Guide
2015-11-01 How to create El Capitan 10.11 USB installer Windows No Mac.
Kernels_10.11, Kernels_10.11.1, config.plist sample, HFSPlus.efi, NTFS.efi.
09/20/2015 New way to create Yosemite 10.10.5 USB installer here.
Download Mavericks Installer
12/22/2014 A new version of tutorial is here – Now we only need 1 8GB USB flash drive instead of 3. But we need the download the Paragon Partition 14 free edition in addition to transmac.
For Yosemite – this boot flag must be inserted in the argument – Actually, for all OS X version, just add this boot flag
kext-dev-mode=1
Patched Kernels for Yosemite and Mavericks.
If you use Clover bootloader – to patch on the fly (no need patched kernel) for the kernel panic early reboot (most HP laptop), put the lines in the clover config.plist file – remove the “!”
KernelAndKextPatches
<!dict>
<!key>KernelPm<!/key>
<!true/>
<!/dict>
2014-07-27 A new version of tutorial is here – 28 minutes long but step by step from beginning to end.
Both Clover and Chameleon bootloaders – 34 minutes.
The Clover Boot partition idogclover14 files.
Yes, someone asked me about installing Mac OSX Mavericks 10.9.x on Windows 8 PC and Laptop without having a MAC to do all the preparation. There are tons of tutorials out there, but none are clear and proven working on newer laptops. This is the way I do it proven with real installation.
1. Download Mavericks 10.9.2 currently in the Apps store or internet somewhere if you don’t have an account with Apple. I don’t even know if you can download the Mavericks App if you don’t have a mac even if you have the account with itunes. Anyhow, you have to figure it out to obtain either an original Mavericks App or InstallESD.dmg.
2. You need 7zip to extract all these compress files in the Mavericks App, BootDiskUtility, Transmac, Chameleon Bootloader and Chameleon_BS.
3. 3-4 usb flash drives: 2 x 2GB minimum + 1 8gb for full OS X Base System
Problems:
1. Most of tutorials out there use Transmac to create the OS X BASE installer which fails due to Windows files structrures.
2. The OS X BASE extracted from Windows doesn’t include the “Packages” folder that install important files for MAC OSX.
3. BootdiskUtility is a great program that can restore 3.hfs OS X BASE System file with correct aliases, but locks the partition at 1.2GB which is not enough space to copy “Packages” folder (4.5GB) data to.
Solutions:
Download Mavericks Without Installing Software
1. Use BootDiskUtility to create 2x 1.2GB USBs OS X BASE Systems – Use Transmac to copy mach_kernel to make it boot and installable without “Packages”. Use Multi Patitioning option and change the size of the boot partition to your liking, 64MB default is plenty for Chameleon, but you can change to 128-356MB if the Extra folder is big. There will be 2 partitions created, boot and the rest (depend on your USB size).
Select Part2 and click “Restore Partition” to select 3.hfs (1.2GB) OS X Base System file to restore.
Download Mavericks Without App Store
Use Transmac to copy mach_kernel to the OS X Base System root.