Install MacOS X Lion directly onto an internal hard drive using Windows

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Level 1

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Install MacOS X Lion directly onto an internal hard drive using Windows

I have an intel Macbook Pro from Mid 2012 with no OS and internet recovery and usb installation doesnt work for me(I either get "Can't download additional components" or the usb doesnt show up as a boot drive even though it shows up in DiskUtility). I was wondering if it was possible to format and install MacOS directly onto the hard drive so that I can just install it into the MacBook and have it boot that way, using Windows(I don't have any other Mac Devices), or I was wondering if it was possible to install the usb installation media directly onto the hard drive, and then from there install MacOS onto the same hard drive as the installation media?

Earlier Mac models

Posted on Jun 17, 2023 3:19 PM

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Answer 1

BDAqua

Level 10

250,181 points

Jun 17, 2023 5:18 PM in response to Blazian-Bruh

Sorta, get the DMG on a USB stick, then use Disk Utility to "Restore" the DMG to another Flash drive or such.

I think it should work in Restore Mode>Utilities>Disk Utility...

https://eshop.macsales.com/blog/39422-how-to-use-the-restore-feature-of-disk-utility-to-clone-a-drive/

Restore a disk image to a disk using Disk Utility on Mac – Apple Support (UK)

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Answer 2

HWTech

Level 9

67,256 points

Jun 17, 2023 6:28 PM in response to Blazian-Bruh

Blazian-Bruh wrote:

I have an intel Macbook Pro from Mid 2012 with no OS and internet recovery and usb installation doesnt work for me(I either get "Can't download additional components"

Most likely the error is due to the installer's expired certificate. You can try changing the system date to some time in 2017.....may need to be earlier such as 2015. While booted to the Lion installer, launch the Terminal app from the Utilities menu on the menu bar. Use the following command to set the system date & time to Jan. 2, 2017 @ 11:33am (adjust the year accordingly if necessary):

date  -u  010211332017

Otherwise you will need access to another Mac from 2008 to 2019 in order to create a bootable macOS USB installer compatible with the 2012 laptop. Generally you will need a Mac from 2008 to 2015 to create a bootable macOS 10.11 USB installer. Or a Mac from Late-2009 to 2018 to create a bootable macOS 10.15 USB installer. The Mac you use to create a bootable macOS USB installer must be compatible with that OS although the Mac can currently be running any version of macOS. You can use the following article to confirm which Macs are compatible with various versions of macOS:

https://eshop.macsales.com/guides/Mac_OS_X_Compatibility

Here is an Apple article with instructions for creating a bootable macOS USB installer (there is a link within this article with instructions for downloading & extracting the OS installer):

Create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support

Another respected forum contributor recently posted a link to a third party developer app called MDS which is able to download various versions of macOS directly from Apple regardless of the Mac you have access to (I have not personally tried this app yet). As long as the Mac is an Intel Mac, then you should still be able to use the instructions in the Apple article I linked above to create the USB installer although you may need to modify those instructions for the command line if the installer is downloaded to a location other than the Applications folder. Unfortunately an M1/M2 Apple Silicon Mac cannot be used to create a USB installer for any OS older than macOS 11.x Big Sur.

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Answer 3

Blazian-Bruh Author

Level 1

5 points

Jun 17, 2023 3:28 PM in response to BDAqua

Oh, would I be able to do my other option of installing the installation media directly to the internal hard drive and then installing MacOS from the Macbook onto the same internal hard drive, maybe a different partition or something if thats possible? Because the actual USB sticks I use with the installation media on it show up in DiskUtility but not as a startup drive. Or is it also a problem that I use windows to create the installation media itself, I used TransMac to do it.

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Answer 4

Blazian-Bruh Author

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5 points

Jun 17, 2023 4:10 PM in response to BDAqua

Ah, I'm unsure what you mean? The Macbook currently has no OS, and like I said I don't have any other Mac devices available, so I only have access to recovery options, do you mean putting the .dmg file onto the USB stick and then burning it to something directly on the Macbook? If so, how?

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Answer 5

Blazian-Bruh Author

Level 1

5 points

Jun 17, 2023 10:30 PM in response to BDAqua

I tried doing this but I got multiple different errors I'm unsure how to fix, I got both "Unable to scan image (Resource Busy)" and "Unable to verify image (Internal Error)", I don't really know how or why either happened, I seemed to have gotten it to work once but i cancelled it before it could finished because I thought I did something wrong, I wish I hadn't now.

But, I am able to mount the .dmg and see the "Install Mac OS X" partition inside, if I used that as the source for restore would it work the same?

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Answer 6

Blazian-Bruh Author

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5 points

Jun 17, 2023 10:31 PM in response to HWTech

I tried changing the date through terminal many time to many different dates and I got the same error every time, and unfortunately I don't have another device running MacOS or any other apple devices at all.

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Answer 7

HWTech

Level 9

67,256 points

Jun 18, 2023 5:52 PM in response to Blazian-Bruh

Unfortunately these are the only ways which are known to work.

The Lion .dmg installer is in a special package format which is not easily made into a bootable installer and would require access to a working Mac to create it anyway. I know as I tried to do it with the macOS 10.11 installer which is released in .dmg format and the Lion .dmg may be in yet a different format. Look closely at what is stored in the mounted Lion .dmg and you will most likely see a single file with the .pkg file extension which will I believe will even require an older 2006 or 2007 Mac to even run the file to extract the real installer app to the Applications folder.

Apple does not make any of this easy.

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Answer 8

Blazian-Bruh Author

Level 1

5 points

Jun 18, 2023 11:11 PM in response to HWTech

Yeah, that makes sense, as a last option, would using a MacOS X virtual machine on my windows pc possibly be able to create a working bootable USB, or would that just not be an option? Maybe copying the entire OS from the virtual machine into the internal drive, although that seems far fetched.

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Answer 9

HWTech

Level 9

67,256 points

Jun 22, 2023 12:37 PM in response to Blazian-Bruh

I honestly don't know whether using macOS in a VM will allow for accessing those installers (or extracting them 10.7 - 10.12). But once you have the installer app in the Applications folder, then I believe you should be use the Terminal command in the Apple article to actually create the bootable USB installer.

I recently discovered another way to download macOS installers directly from Apple which can be done using any Mac and any version of macOS which is compatible with the third party app MDS (courtesy of @Old Toad finding it). I haven't tried using MDS yet, so I'm not sure if it has an option to create the USB installer. If it does not, then to create a bootable macOS 10.15 or earlier USB installer will require access to an Intel Mac since the Apple Silicon Macs will not permit the necessary Terminal command to work.

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