Can Sierra be installed on a virtual machine created by Parallels Desktop 10?

Solution 1:

Yes, this is possible.

It’s not actually too hard, but there’s a lot of steps (a couple of which can be fiddly) so be patient and read this carefully. I’ll try and outline all the steps involved, but feel free to let me know if you get stuck at all.

Also, some of these steps are not strictly necessary, but I’m trying to make this foolproof so that it's useful to other users, and also because I want to ensure that my Terminal command at Step 12 can just be copied and pasted.

1. On your iMac, download the macOS Sierra installer via the Mac App Store
2. After its downloaded, the installer will launch automatically. When it does, quit the installer.
3. Grab a USB flash drive of at least 8GB in size
4. Connect the USB flash drive to your Mac
5. Launch the Disk Utility app (by default it’s in the Applications > Utilities folder)
6. Select the USB flash drive on the lefthand side
7. Click on the Erase tab
8. Do not change the default name of Untitled
9. Click on the Erase button (do not worry about any of the other settings). Note this will totally erase your drive!
10. Quit Disk Utility
11. Launch the Terminal app (by default it’s in the Applications > Utilities folder)

12. Now enter the following command into Terminal. It may be best to just copy it from here (try triple-clicking) and paste it in.

    sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app

13. You will be prompted to enter your user password. Enter it now and press return (note that you won’t see the cursor move or display any of the characters you enter)

14. At the next prompt (about erasing your drive) press the Y key
15. Wait for your USB flash drive to be erased (you’ll see the progress via % values appearing within the Terminal window)
16. Once the erasure is complete, you will see a prompt that files are being copied to the disk. This may take a while, so be patient.
17. Eventually the copy process will be over and you should see a Done message in Terminal. You can now quit Terminal.
18. Now launch Parallels.
19. Go to File > New (or press commandN)
20. In the window that appears, select the Install Windows or another OS from a DVD or image file option
21. Click on the Continue button at bottom right
22. At the next window, ignore what Parallels is searching for and click on the Continue button again
23. At the next window, give your virtual machine a name and select the location you want it created in
24. Now, click on the checkbox to indicate you want to Customize settings before installation
25. Click on the Continue button
26. Parallels will now create your virtual machine
27. When complete, you will be presented with the configuration settings
28. Click on the Hardware tab
29. Select the Boot Order option in the left hand list
30. On the righthand side, tick the Select boot device on startup checkbox. This is a temporary, but critical step!
31. Feel free to configure your other settings for the virtual machine
32. Once you’ve configured everything, exit the configuration screen
33. Click on the Continue button
34. You should see a message that your virtual machine is starting. Wait until you see the Boot Menu appear (it’ll probably be a grey screen with blue and black text on it).
35. The Continue option will probably be selected. Ignore this and use your down arrow key to select the Boot Maintenance Manager option
36. Press return
37. Once the Boot Maintenance Manager window appears, use your down arrow key to select the Boot From File option
38. Press return
39. Once the File Explorer window appears, use your down arrow key to select the second file listed
40. Press return
41. In the next window, use your down arrow key to select the .IABootFiles option
42. Press return
43. In the next window boot.efi should be preselected
44. Press return
45. Shortly the Apple logo should appear on a black screen

Now you can follow the prompts to install macOS Sierra.

NOTE 1: - Once you’re within the Boot Menu screens (i.e. Steps 34 - 44) you can press the ESC key at any stage to go back to the previous screen if you need to.

NOTE 2: - Please be patient - the macOS Sierra installation process can take a long time within a virtual machine!

NOTE 3: - Once you're all set up, you will want to go back into the configuration settings for your macOS Sierra virtual machine and uncheck the Select boot device on startup checkbox you ticked at Step 30.

NOTE 4: - If you get stuck at any stage, feel free to post a comment below.