So here we go. My first actual "native install"—by "native" I simply mean to say 'not in a virtual machine'.
It was in no small part thanks to a wonderfully compact, well accessorized USB image called "iPortable Snow OSx86 10.6.2 Bootable USB image" which can be found on several popular BitTorrent trackers by searching with your good buddy, Google.
You need:
- The iPortable USB image mentioned above.
- A USB flash drive. Get one that is at least 8GB if you want to make your life easy!
NOTE: Don't just go for the cheapest 8GB flash drive you can find at Fry's! I made that mistake, and realized that some Flash drives are waaaaaaaay sloooooooweeeeeerrr that other more expensive models. The Kingston Datatraveler 8GB I got for about $20 is really slow when booting iPortable. Anyway, it'll work, and the idea is to start on the USB drive and then clone the installation over to a proper hard drive partition, which can be done with the tools provided in the iPortable image, or you can go find a copy of SuperDuper! Chronosync, Carbon Copy, etc.
The instruction manual that comes inside the image is a thorough, well-illustrated, relatively newbie-friendly PDF.
Warning #1: You'll want to have access to OS X to get ready! iPortable is a .dmg, so you are going to want to have access to at least Tiger, so you can use Disk Utility to format and configure a USB drive to which you will restore the iPortable .dmg. After you have done this (like I said, you'll need Disk Utility on a Mac or a stable enough Hackintosh, and all the other apps and resources will be on the iPortable .dmg)
And here's Warning #2: if you are the type of person that abhors having to ever open Terminal, then you are going to be fighting an uphill battle at best, and most probably will find yourself stuck at some point. If this happens to you and you can afford it, try going on a Hackintosh forum that has a section for posting a 'bounty', that is, naming a price you will pay for anyone that can solve that problem you're up against.
That having all been said, I'm going to take it down a notch and just make notes of my progress this time around.
