If you are tired of using Microsoft Windows and want to explore the world of the Macintosh without spending the money for a new computer, you should consider porting the Mac OS to your PC. Completing a port of Mac OS X is becoming easier as more and more people want to give the software a try. You do need to be aware that this a considered hacking your computer, and could very well be considered copyright infringement. But if your willing to try and you have a little bit of computer knowledge, you may really enjoy the outcome.

You may want to try this process out on a second computer or a second hard drive instead of giving up your primary computer. While this process is relatively easy once you have the proper files, the process explained here will wipe your hard drive and that includes any personal files you have on the hard drive. If anything goes wrong and you sacrificed your primary computer and hard drive to the process, you may end up having to rebuild your computer without any support from your manufacturer or Apple.

You will need a separate hard drive to install OS X on. If you are interested in dual booting between OS X and Microsoft Windows, you need two separate hard drives. This process will not work on a partitioned hard drive. Once you have the necessary hardware, search your favorite torrent site for the necessary files. You need to find “VMWare files for patched Mac OS X” online and download the entire file. This file should end up over 6gb after your download has completed. Once you have the proper .img file, move it to an external USB hard drive and set the drive aside.

Next, download the Ubuntu Live CD from the Ubuntu website. You need to verify that you are getting the correct version of Ubuntu. Burn the Ubuntu .iso file to a CD thus creating a bootable Ubuntu disk. Place the disk in your computer and boot from it. Once Ubuntu boots and the GUI Is running, connect the USB drive that is holding your Mac OS X files. Note the path to you USB drive and double confirm the location of the drive you will be using for your new Mac OS X operating system.

It is not time to work with Linux to install OS X on your PC. Open a terminal window and change the directory of the terminal window the appropriate path for your USB drive. Then in the terminal window type “dd bs=1048576 if=./tiger-x86-flat.img of=/dev/hda” You will want to make sure that you replace the “hda” with the correct drive information for your final installation of the OS X files. And double check everything before you continue on, this command will erase whatever drive you indicate. When you hit enter, your computer will start working. This process may take several minutes to complete so be patient. After this wipe and transfer process is complete, you can remove the Ubuntu CD from your computer and shut down the PC. After your computer is shut down, you should remove the USB drive that held you OS X .img file and reboot your computer. If everything was completed correctly you will be booting into Apple’s OS X instead of Microsoft’s Windows.

If you want to move to Mac OS but do not want to use linux, you can still install OS X using public-domain tools native to windows. These tools still have the ability to completely wipe your hard drive, so again the same cautions apply. Make sure you are not using your primary hard drive unless you want to spend time rebuilding your computer if anything goes wrong and you will need a separate hard drive as the process will not work on a partitioned drive. Porting Mac OS to your PC is not an exact science and anything can go wrong at any time.

If using Microsoft Windows to handle your port, you still need to find and download the “VMWare files for patched Mac OS X Tiger Intel” but instead of Ubuntu’s Linux files, you also need to download “Forensic Acquisition Utilities”. Install the Forensic Acquisition Utilities onto you main root drive and use the command “dd if=c:\tiger-x86-flat.img of=\\.\physicaldrive” where physical drive is replaced with the appropriate indicator of the drive you want to install Mac OS X on. Once you start the process, it may appear that your computer hangs however do not touch anything, your hard drives are working away. After the process is completed, reboot your computer and set your BIOS for your preferred boot sequence. If everything worked properly and your hardware is compatible you should see OSX boot up.