Adding OS-X to existing Win7 Machine (Haswell)

[mdeixler]

I've been reading the blogs and I am confused. All I seem to find are guides for building machines from no operating system at all. I have a mature Win 7 machine with a great deal of data and programs on it. I would like to add OS-X to it on a new, separate drive and dual boot. The equipment is:

Motherboard:

ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. B85M-E Rev X.0x
​

Processor:

Intel Core i3-4330 (I beleave this is what was called a Haswell CPU)
​

Display Card

NVIDIA GeForce GT 620
​

Ram:

4 Gig (Single Stick)
​

I would like to do this without needing to reinstall Win7.

Which OS would I need to be able to boot the machine without a CD or Thumb Drive?

How do I go about getting the OS that I would need?

What changes (and where) would need to be made to the existing hard drive and new one?

Is there an installation guide(s) that I should be reading that addresses adding OSX to an existing Windows machine?

Thank you

 

[Going Bald]

I've been reading the blogs and I am confused. All I seem to find are guides for building machines from no operating system at all. I have a mature Win 7 machine with a great deal of data and programs on it. I would like to add OS-X to it on a new, separate drive and dual boot.

See http://www.tonymacx86.com/multi-booting/96000-guide-dual-booting-mountain-lion-windows-8-a.html

Adding OS X to an existing Win7 box is easy if you are willing to add a separate SSD/HDD for OS X and the hardware is compatible.
Just make sure you disconnect the SATA cable of the Windows drive(s) before you attempt to install to prevent possible errors in formatting - you wouldn't want to mistake the drive ID and format your data drive instead of the drive you have for OS X.
No changes need to be made to the existing drive if Win7 was installed with AHCI enabled in the BIOS and it was installed Legacy mode. To check this, boot to BIOS and look at the SATA port options. If it says AHCI, fine. If it says IDE, then you need to enable AHCI in Win7 before you install OS X.
To check installation mode, open Windows disk management and look at your Win7 drive. If it has an EFI and a System partition in front of the "Healthy NTFS" (C:\) partition, then it is installed UEFI and you need to use Clover as your boot loader - See http://www.tonymacx86.com/mavericks...-how-install-os-x-mavericks-using-clover.html for installing with Clover.

 

[mdeixler]

See http://www.tonymacx86.com/multi-booting/96000-guide-dual-booting-mountain-lion-windows-8-a.html

Adding OS X to an existing Win7 box is easy if you are willing to add a separate SSD/HDD for OS X and the hardware is compatible.
Just make sure you disconnect the SATA cable of the Windows drive(s) before you attempt to install to prevent possible errors in formatting - you wouldn't want to mistake the drive ID and format your data drive instead of the drive you have for OS X.
No changes need to be made to the existing drive if Win7 was installed with AHCI enabled in the BIOS and it was installed Legacy mode. To check this, boot to BIOS and look at the SATA port options. If it says AHCI, fine. If it says IDE, then you need to enable AHCI in Win7 before you install OS X.
To check installation mode, open Windows disk management and look at your Win7 drive. If it has an EFI and a System partition in front of the "Healthy NTFS" (C:\) partition, then it is installed UEFI and you need to use Clover as your boot loader - See http://www.tonymacx86.com/mavericks...-how-install-os-x-mavericks-using-clover.html for installing with Clover.

Thank you for that clear guidance. Can that boot either Snow Leopard or Mountain Line as well as Mavericks? Those OS disks are so inexpensive at the Apple store right now and I would like to work with one of them.

mdeixler

PS:

Part of my dilemma here is this: Each guide for this seems to start with being able to create a USB installation stick from an operating pc with OSX installed. How would one do that with only Win 7 installed? It's kind of a Catch 22, you need an installation to do the USB, but you need the USB to install in the first place. I have no friends that currently run a Mac of any kind.

Thanks


.

 

[Going Bald]

Thank you for that clear guidance. Can that boot either Snow Leopard or Mountain Line as well as Mavericks? Those OS disks are so inexpensive at the Apple store right now and I would like to work with one of them.

mdeixler

B85 board is Haswell, so you are restricted to 10.8.5 or 10.9 versions of OS X. 10.8.4 and earlier do not have support for the Haswell hardware.