How to Convert a MacOS X 10.5 Leopard Upgrade DVD into a Retail MacOS X 10.5 Leopard

Recently buying a few new Macs I found that Apple bundles a special crippled “drop in” Leopard upgrade disc that requires an installation of MacOS 10.4 on your Mac. Considering that I format my Macs right out of the box this crippled upgrade DVD doesn’t really work for me – which then forces me to purchase a retail copy of Leopard. Hardly fair!
Here is how to convert that crippled MacOS X 10.5 Leopard “Drop In” DVD into a regular retail MacOS X 10.5 Leopard DVD. Mind you this is NOT TO be used for any illegal distribution and should only be used within your “fair use” rights of your licensed media.
- Put your licensed Leopard Disk in DVD Drive
- Start Disk Utility
- In Disk Utility Select New Image
- The New Image Dialog will pop up. Leave everything at default setting and set Volume Size to “8.0 GB (DVD+R DL)”
- Select the Leopard DVD on the side pane of the Disk Utility and Click Restore
- Set the source as the Leopard DVD and destination as the Newly Created Disk Image
Now wait. This process will take a VERY long time.
- After it is done, eject the DVD
- Now you must show some hidden files on your Mac. To do that you will need to open your Terminal (in your utilities folder) and type the following commands:
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles True
- Press Return then type in the next command:
Killall Finder
- Press Return
- Go into the newly created Leopard Image on your desktop
- Navigate to /Volumes/Mac OS X Install DVD/System/Installation/CDIS/
- Right-Click on “Mac OS X Installer” and Click on Show Package Contents
- In the New Window goto Contents/Resources and DELETE the “CheckForOSX” File
- Now just rename the DMG Volume to Mac OS X Install DVD using the Get Info Dialog
- Now burn this image
Thats it now your crippled upgrade DVD is the equivalent to a retail DVD.
Thank you to faithful reader TIM for sending in this tip!
