I'm trying to install OS X Mavericks in VirtualBox on Windows 8.1. I have VirtualBox installed and the VM set up, but I need an ISO file to install the operating system.

I've searched around and found one result one a website I hadn't heard of, but Google Chrome flagged it as malware. I found a file on CNet, but it's an upgrade file for machines that are running an earlier version of OS X.

All versions of Mac OS X that were made to run on PowerPC systems (with the exception of Leopard) had a Mac OS 9 emulation layer called 'Classic'. It allowed Mac OS X to run Mac OS 9 applications that weren't updated to run natively on OS X (known as carbonization based on the Carbon API).

Is there an official source for downloading OS X ISO files? If not, is it possible to get the required ISO file without already having access to OS X?

4 Answers

Does not work on Mavericks and Yosemite

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There is no way to legitimately get the file without having access to a Mac, and a licensed copy of the OS via a purchase (unless you are a member of the Developer Program, for which you can expect to pay far more than the cost of the OS, what with it being free).

But if you can blag some access time on a Mac, then you can download the OS from the Mac App Store (You may need to Option+Click the Purchased section to force it to reshow them if you have downloaded them at least once already). Once you have the installer downloaded and sat in your dock, you can simply pick it apart and get to the image file that is inside it.

This is the official way to get the file direct from Apple, but there is still work to do to make it into an ISO:

1. Once you’ve downloaded Mavericks, find the installer on your Mac. It’s called Install OS X Mavericks.app and it should have been downloaded to your main Applications folder or be sat in your Dock.
2. Right-click (or Control+click) the installer, and choose Show Package Contents from the resulting contextual menu.

3. In the folder that appears, open Contents > Shared Support; you’ll see a disk image file called InstallESD.dmg

   This dmg file is in essence an ISO file in s slightly different format. We'll need to convert it. Open up Disk Utility and:

4. From the menu bar, select Images > Convert and point it to your .dmg file
5. In the Save As dialog that follows, select DVD/CD master. Disk Utility will insist on saving the new ISO as a .cdr file, but it is really an ISO.
6. When complete, you can rename it to .iso in Finder.
7. Use an external HD or thumb drive which is in ExFAT format (Compared to FAT format, this allows for single files larger than 4GB). Copy the .iso file and access it on the other system.

For clarity, you can do the above on any version of OS X from 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) onwards, so you can use an old image to get hold of a new image for example, if you have access to a different OS version than Mavericks.

The answer above by @stuffe won't work on Mavericks. Apparently Apple has changed the format of the ESD image and it's no longer bootable.

Looking around I've found a couple of pointers on how to do the necessary conversions to get the result as something you can boot a VM off.

Depending on what's the purpose of the ISO file, if it's to reinstall a computer, it might be more useful to use a Bootable USB- For that, check How to: Create a bootable installation for OS X Mavericks 10.9 and above.

For the ISO file itself, I've mostly used the information found on this post on the InsanelyMac site, augmented with the information/tip on creating a Recovery Partition found on the Apple Support Communities.

Basically the process is to get the ESD image, and rebuild it to include some info that is now packaged as symlinks, and get that out as a ISO file. The author of the InsanelyMac post has automated the process into a bash script, that I'm pasting here for convenience/reference:

I can confirm that the resulting image is indeed bootable within Fusion; it's in the process of being installed so I'm yet to see whether other 'tricks' are needed to make it work (for example, if the result is lacking a Recovery Partition as stated in some of the threads).

UPDATE: The resulting VM boots, and appears to work 'well'. I have used the method described to create a recovery partition, but even though Carbon Copy 'sees' a Recovery Partition on the (virtual) HD, it doesn't appear to work all that well, as booting the VM with Option key pressed doesn't do anything. Will look into it if I have time, but for the time being it appears that the .iso file I got is working.

There is no official way to run OS X on a virtual machine in Windows. The Apple EULA clearly states under section 2 B that you're allowed to:

(iii) to install, use and run up to two (2) additional copies or instances of the Apple Software within virtual operating system environments on each Mac Computer you own or control that is already running the Apple Software, for purposes of: (a) software development; (b) testing during software development; (c) using OS X Server; or (d) personal, non-commercial use.

Source: Apple Inc. Software License Agreement for OS X Maverics

This means that you can virtualize OS X only inside OS X on Mac hardware. Anything else breaks the license.

The same as given by stuffe.

You can format your flash drive to ExFAT format which allows for access both on Windows and Mac. The file size restriction of FAT is not present on ExFAT.

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protected by Community♦Dec 8 '14 at 2:08

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