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Hackintosh Newbie Questions - Creating Bootable USB from Windows

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In advance, I'll say that I know there have been some discussions about this in the past. The reason I post something new is that I haven't seen any discussion over the last 12 months or so, and given my very new familiarity with the hackintosh community, I'm a bit on edge relying on software issues from a year ago. So... here are my questions:

* Is there any way to create a bootable USB thumbdrive for the Mountain Lion hackintosh install if I don't have access to a Mac? I'm no expert programmer or systems engineer, but in general, I'm very comfortable handling computer components and configuring software. I just want to rely on some advice on this issue that is more recent.

* Is there any reason at this point I should wait for Maverick? I'm inclined to just move forward with Mountain Lion right now and upgrade down the road. I'm completely new to the Mac community, so I don't know if I'm better off waiting.

* Because I am brand new to the Mac community (and my wife and kids will be using the system as well), am I better off just buying a genuine Mac? Many moons ago, I built my own PC system and seemed to have a few compatibility and functionality issues. I don't want that to be the case and it would give my wife a really bad taste about the Mac experience. Thoughts?

Thanks in advance!

Jeff
 
In advance, I'll say that I know there have been some discussions about this in the past. The reason I post something new is that I haven't seen any discussion over the last 12 months or so, and given my very new familiarity with the hackintosh community, I'm a bit on edge relying on software issues from a year ago. So... here are my questions:

* Is there any way to create a bootable USB thumbdrive for the Mountain Lion hackintosh install if I don't have access to a Mac? I'm no expert programmer or systems engineer, but in general, I'm very comfortable handling computer components and configuring software. I just want to rely on some advice on this issue that is more recent.

No, not with the methods supported on this site. Best that you borrow a Mac for an afternoon to purchase ML, then create your Unibeast USB.

* Is there any reason at this point I should wait for Maverick? I'm inclined to just move forward with Mountain Lion right now and upgrade down the road. I'm completely new to the Mac community, so I don't know if I'm better off waiting.

If you don't mind waiting some unknown period of time, then wait... No one knows when Mavs will be released. If you don't want to wait, dive in now with ML.

* Because I am brand new to the Mac community (and my wife and kids will be using the system as well), am I better off just buying a genuine Mac? Many moons ago, I built my own PC system and seemed to have a few compatibility and functionality issues. I don't want that to be the case and it would give my wife a really bad taste about the Mac experience. Thoughts?

Personal preference really. A hack will never be as care free as a real Mac and you can't have the folks at the Apple store fix your problems. If you stick to compatible hardware to build your desktop, the process can be fairly reliable with just a few tweaks to be done each update.
 
For a general purpose family machine I'd buy a Mini and be done with it. If you aren't going to use the project as a learning tool or get hardware with which you can tweak or experiment you don't save any money on a low end build and it's more effort to get it going even if you have solid parts. You'll need to get the parts, assemble them, use a Mac to create a Unibeast and download a copy of OS X, go through the installation process then tweak various components to get them to work together. Now add the first build learning curve. Once you buy the Mini and they start using it, you can then use it to help you build a meaty Hackintosh while they use their Mac as it was intended.
 
* Is there any way to create a bootable USB thumbdrive for the Mountain Lion hackintosh install if I don't have access to a Mac? I'm no expert programmer or systems engineer, but in general, I'm very comfortable handling computer components and configuring software. I just want to rely on some advice on this issue that is more recent.


If you don't have access to a Mac then you can purchased a Mac OS X Snow Leopard Retail DVD from the Apple Store and follow the guide from the link provided (NOTE: Haswell based systems are currently not supported with this method)

http://www.tonymacx86.com/340-snow-leopard-mountain-lion-ivy-bridge-installation-video-guide.html
 
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