Final note: Install & Run Mac OS X 10.7 Lion in a Virtual Machine with VMWare. If you have any queries regards the Install & Run Mac OS X 10.7 Lion in a Virtual Machine with VMWare, then please ask us through the comment section below or directly contact us. Education: This guide or tutorial is just for educational purposes. How to install Mac OS X Lion on Virtualbox:Download ISO torrent (New link):Box:http://sh.st/vjkX. Nov 29, 2017 For example, to get an installer for Lion, you may ask a friend who has Lion-operated Mac or, once again, set up a virtual machine running Lion. Then you will need to prepare an external drive to download the installation file using OS X Utilities.

So, you’ve decided to download an older version of Mac OS X. There are many reasons that could point you to this radical decision. To begin with, some of your apps may not be working properly (or simply crash) on newer operating systems. Also, you may have noticed your Mac’s performance went down right after the last update. Finally, if you want to run a parallel copy of Mac OS X on a virtual machine, you too will need a working installation file of an older Mac OS X. Further down we’ll explain where to get one and what problems you may face down the road.

Dec 09, 2020 Mac Os X 10.7 Lion Vmdk Download. Mac OSX Lion 10.7.2 DMG Free Download Clean Official Mac Store Release DVD. It is complete bootable Mac OSX Lion 10.7.2 DMG Download in Single Direct Link. Features of MAC os x lion 10.7. Time Machine:Requires an additional hard drive or Time Capsule (sold separately).

Mac Os X Lion Virtualbox

A list of all Mac OS X versions

We’ll be repeatedly referring to these Apple OS versions below, so it’s good to know the basic macOS timeline.

STEP 1. Prepare your Mac for installation

Given your Mac isn’t new and is filled with data, you will probably need enough free space on your Mac. This includes not just space for the OS itself but also space for other applications and your user data. One more argument is that the free space on your disk translates into virtual memory so your apps have “fuel” to operate on. The chart below tells you how much free space is needed.

Note, that it is recommended that you install OS on a clean drive. Next, you will need enough disk space available, for example, to create Recovery Partition. Here are some ideas to free up space on your drive:

• Uninstall large unused apps
• Empty Trash Bin and Downloads
• Locate the biggest files on your computer:

Go to Finder > All My Files > Arrange by size
Then you can move your space hoggers onto an external drive or a cloud storage.
If you aren’t comfortable with cleaning the Mac manually, there are some nice automatic “room cleaners”. Our favorite is CleanMyMac as it’s most simple to use of all. It deletes system junk, old broken apps, and the rest of hidden junk on your drive.

Download CleanMyMac for OS 10.4 - 10.8 (free version)

Download CleanMyMac for OS 10.9 (free version)

Download CleanMyMac for OS 10.10 - 10.14 (free version)

STEP 2. Get a copy of Mac OS X download

Normally, it is assumed that updating OS is a one-way road. That’s why going back to a past Apple OS version is problematic. The main challenge is to download the OS installation file itself, because your Mac may already be running a newer version. If you succeed in downloading the OS installation, your next step is to create a bootable USB or DVD and then reinstall the OS on your computer.

How to download older Mac OS X versions via the App Store

If you once had purchased an old version of Mac OS X from the App Store, open it and go to the Purchased tab. There you’ll find all the installers you can download. However, it doesn’t always work that way. The purchased section lists only those operating systems that you had downloaded in the past. But here is the path to check it:

1. Click the App Store icon.
2. Click Purchases in the top menu.
3. Scroll down to find the preferred OS X version.
4. Click Download.

This method allows you to download Mavericks and Yosemite by logging with your Apple ID — only if you previously downloaded them from the Mac App Store.

Without App Store: Download Mac OS version as Apple Developer

If you are signed with an Apple Developer account, you can get access to products that are no longer listed on the App Store. If you desperately need a lower OS X version build, consider creating a new Developer account among other options. The membership cost is $99/year and provides a bunch of perks unavailable to ordinary users.

Nevertheless, keep in mind that if you visit developer.apple.com/downloads, you can only find 10.3-10.6 OS X operating systems there. Newer versions are not available because starting Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.7, the App Store has become the only source of updating Apple OS versions.

Purchase an older version of Mac operating system

You can purchase a boxed or email version of past Mac OS X directly from Apple. Both will cost you around $20. For the reason of being rather antiquated, Snow Leopard and earlier Apple versions can only be installed from DVD.

Buy a boxed edition of Snow Leopard 10.6
Get an email copy of Lion 10.7
Get an email copy of Mountain Lion 10.8

The email edition comes with a special download code you can use for the Mac App Store. Note, that to install the Lion or Mountain Lion, your Mac needs to be running Snow Leopard so you can install the newer OS on top of it.

How to get macOS El Capitan download

If you are wondering if you can run El Capitan on an older Mac, rejoice as it’s possible too. But before your Mac can run El Capitan it has to be updated to OS X 10.6.8. So, here are main steps you should take:

1. Install Snow Leopard from install DVD.
2. Update to 10.6.8 using Software Update.
3. Download El Capitan here.

“I can’t download an old version of Mac OS X”

If you have a newer Mac, there is no physical option to install Mac OS versions older than your current Mac model. For instance, if your MacBook was released in 2014, don’t expect it to run any OS released prior of that time, because older Apple OS versions simply do not include hardware drivers for your Mac.

But as it often happens, workarounds are possible. There is still a chance to download the installation file if you have an access to a Mac (or virtual machine) running that operating system. For example, to get an installer for Lion, you may ask a friend who has Lion-operated Mac or, once again, set up a virtual machine running Lion. Then you will need to prepare an external drive to download the installation file using OS X Utilities.

After you’ve completed the download, the installer should launch automatically, but you can click Cancel and copy the file you need. Below is the detailed instruction how to do it.

STEP 3. Install older OS X onto an external drive

The following method allows you to download Mac OS X Lion, Mountain Lion, and Mavericks.

1. Start your Mac holding down Command + R.
2. Prepare a clean external drive (at least 10 GB of storage).
3. Within OS X Utilities, choose Reinstall OS X.
4. Select external drive as a source.
5. Enter your Apple ID.

Now the OS should start downloading automatically onto the external drive. After the download is complete, your Mac will prompt you to do a restart, but at this point, you should completely shut it down. Now that the installation file is “captured” onto your external drive, you can reinstall the OS, this time running the file on your Mac.

1. Boot your Mac from your standard drive.
2. Connect the external drive.
3. Go to external drive > OS X Install Data.

Locate InstallESD.dmg disk image file — this is the file you need to reinstall Lion OS X. The same steps are valid for Mountain Lion and Mavericks.

How to downgrade a Mac running later macOS versions

If your Mac runs macOS Sierra 10.12 or macOS High Sierra 10.13, it is possible to revert it to the previous system if you are not satisfied with the experience. You can do it either with Time Machine or by creating a bootable USB or external drive.
Instruction to downgrade from macOS Sierra

Instruction to downgrade from macOS High Sierra

Instruction to downgrade from macOS Mojave

Instruction to downgrade from macOS Catalina

Before you do it, the best advice is to back your Mac up so your most important files stay intact. In addition to that, it makes sense to clean up your Mac from old system junk files and application leftovers. The easiest way to do it is to run CleanMyMac X on your machine (download it for free here).

Visit your local Apple Store to download older OS X version

If none of the options to get older OS X worked, pay a visit to nearest local Apple Store. They should have image installations going back to OS Leopard and earlier. You can also ask their assistance to create a bootable USB drive with the installation file. So here you are. We hope this article has helped you to download an old version of Mac OS X. Below are a few more links you may find interesting.

OS X Lion virtual machine

The current Mac computer family is based on Intel x86-64 platform and also Mac OS X is optimized for current Intel processors. The only difference between IBM-PC and Macintosh lies in a special EFI BIOS that identifies that is needed for Mac OS X. However, third party developers established project called OSx86, better known as Hackintosh, which allows users to run Mac OS X on non-Apple computers, or in virtualization software.

Mac Os Virtual Machine Download

So let's see how you can run latest Mac OS X Lion in virtual machine created in Oracle VM VirtualBox virtualization software.

How to install Mac OS X Lion to VirtualBox

Step 1 - Install VirtualBox to your computer

You can download free VirtualBox installation package from Oracle website. It has very straightforward installation without any complex settings.

Step 2 - Mac OS X distribution

They are few ways how to install Mac OS X to virtual machine. Advanced users can use original DVD with special boot loaders and test optimal settings for the best Mac OS X performance.

However, we used easier way with a pre-prepared installation image called iATKOS L2, that includes Mac OS X Lion and other utilities, patches as well as hardware drivers that allows users to install Mac OS X. You can Google for it and download it, for example on BitTorrents. Original iATKOS L2 is distributed in DMG format used for Mac OS X installation packages.

Step 3 - Create virtual machine

After you have installed VirtualBox and downloaded iATKOS L2 disk image, it is time to prepare the virtual machine.

To run Mac OS X in virtual machine you need to have processor with Intel VTx, or AMD-v hardware virtualization support. If you don't have it you can also try to install Hackintosh directly to your computer. Read How to create Hackintosh here.

StartVirtualBox and click on New option in the top menu. In welcome screen of the virtual machine wizard, click on Continue button.

Set the VM Name. SetOS Type to Mac OS X and set Version to Mac OS X Server or Mac OS X Server 64 on 64-bit systems (standard Mac OS X is not officially supported in VirtualBox). Click on Continue button.

Specify the name and type of OS

SetBase memory (RAM) to minimum of 1GB, if you can afford it set it to 2 or more.

Set the RAM size

In next Virtual Hard Disk screen uncheck the Start-up disk box → Click on Continue button. You will be warned by message, but ignore it and press again Continue button.

Warning message in VirtualBox wizard

In Summary window click on Create button and new virtual machine will be added to the VirtualBox virtual machine list.

Virtual Machine summary window

Step 4 - Virtual machine settings

Right click on new virtual machine and selectSettings option in pull down menu. Go to the System tab and uncheck box with Enable EFI option.

VirtualBox virtual machine settings

Click on Display tab and setVideo Memory to 128MB and check the box Enable 3D Acceleration.

Virtual machine video settings

Click on Storage tab → Click on hard drive icon next to IDE Controller option → SelectCreate new disk.

VirtualBox create a new virtual hard drive

In simple virtual disk creation wizard selectVDI (Virtual Box Disk Image) option and click on Continue button → Storage details set to Dynamically allocated and click on Continue button → Set the name, location and size of virtual disk and click on Continue button (min. 15GB recommended) → On summary window click on Create button.

Now you are back to the Storage settings. Click on 'Empty' optical drive → Click on Optical Disk icon in the Attributes area → click on Choose a virtual CD/DVD disk file... and select iATKOS L2 image. Now click on Open button and after that OK button.

Mount CD/DVD image in VirtualBox

Step 5 - Installing Mac OS X

Now the virtual machine is prepared for Mac OS X installation. Double click on new virtual machine and wait until the Mac OS X installation application started.

Select your language and click on Next arrow.

Mac OS X installation application

Now you need to prepare installation partition on virtual disk. Click on Utilities option in Top menu and selectDisk Utility.

Mac OS X Installer Utilities

Select VBOX HARDDISK in Hard Drive list → Select Erase option → Format - Mac OS Extended (Journaled) → set the name of disk and click on Erase... button. Wait until formatting is finished and close the Disk Utility.

Mac OS X Disk Utility

You are back in the Mac OS X installation wizard → Click continue button and Agree with Read Me.

Select the installation hard drive and click on Install button. Now it is time for a break and wait until the installation process will be finished.

Mac OS X installation partition

After successful installation, the virtual machine will be restarted. If after restart the machine doesn't reboot, simply close the machine and select power off machine and start machine again.

Mac Os Lion Free

Mac OS X install succeeded

After reboot, or restart you will see an Chameleon bootloader. PressF8 key to open boot option and select by arrow key bootable partition with new installed Mac OS X and press Enter.

iATKOS Chameleon bootloader

Wait until the Mac OS X will start Computer Setup Wizard, where you set configuration of your Mac like region, keyboard type, Apple ID, registration, computer account etc.

After the settings are complete you will be welcomed to Mac OS X Lion desktop.

Mac OS X Lion installed in VirtualBox

If you don't want to always use a mounted iATKOS installation image to boot up the system, go the System Preferences → Boot Loader → Boot Setup → check the Default Partition box and type to text box hd(0,2) to set bootable partition and close Bootloader Configuration. Now the system is able to boot without bootable image.

Chameleon Bootloader Configuration app in System Preferences

And that's it. You can now start to learn with Mac OS X operating system, install and test Mac applications as well as develop applications for Mac, iPhone or iPad with Xcode.

Mac Os X Lion Virtual Machine

Screenshots in this article are from VirtualBox for Mac, but the same settings are working for VirtualBox for Windows and Linux.