How to install Windows 8.1 on a Mac running OS X Mavericks

This video will show you how to install Windows 8.1 on a Mac running OS X Mavericks.

What you will need.
* A blank DVD to burn Windows 8.1
* 1GB USB Drive to store the Windows Support Software

Step 1. Go to Go and Utilities and click on Bootcamp assistant. Run the Bootcamp assistant and click continue. Put a tick in Download Windows Support Software and tick Install Windows 7. On later versions of Mac it will have Install Windows 8.

Step 2. Make sure you have your USB drive plugged into your Mac. This will be formatted with the MS Dos FAT file system. Once this is formatted you will be adding the boot camp drivers for your Mac hardware to the USB drive. To find out more info on the boot camp drivers needed for your model of Mac click your model below.
MacBook Pro
MacBook Air
MacBook
iMac
Mac mini
Mac Pro

Step 3. After clicking continue you will need to select the USB drive that you just formatted with FAT. Then the next screen should display as “Downloading Windows support software . . .” and then “Saving Windows support software”.

Step 4. You can install Windows 8.1 via DVD or ISO file depending on the age of your Mac. For this video we use a DVD and if you don’t have a copy of Windows 8.1 handy you can actually download and use the Windows 8.1 preview version from the 123myIT.com website here. This preview version will ask you to buy a copy of Windows after one month.
Don’t know how to burn the Windows 8.1 ISO file to DVD? The two videos below will show you how.
How to Burn an ISO to DVD Windows Bootable
or
How to Burn an ISO or DMG file to DVD on a Mac

Step 5. Click Add helper. Boot Camp will ask you to put in the DVD you just burnt. You will need to go into Utilities and then Disk Utility, select your hard drive and partition your hard drive.
This will create some disk space on your Hard disk to install Windows 8.1. Click the plus button and make the hard drive size equal in size. Click on the second partition and change the name to Windows so you can identify the different drives. Change the format to exFAT. Then click apply and partition.

Step 6. Make sure your Windows DVD is in the DVD drive. Hold down the ALT option Key on your keyboard and restart your Mac. Once your Mac restarts you should see a that has the OS X and Windows drives and DVDs. Like the picture below.
Mac Pre Boot

Use your arrows keys and move across until the Windows DVD is selected.

Step 7. You should then see the Windows install screen come up. Select your country and click Next. Enter you serial key. If you are using the Windows Blue Preview version then you can get the serial Key from the Downloads page mentioned earlier. Click here.

Step 8. From here on in you should just be able to follow the prompts. If you find that your mouse track pad or keyboard buttons don’t work, look for your model of the boot camp drivers link above and make sure they are installed.

More info on installing Windows on a Mac, you can check out the official Windows and Apple sites.

How to do a clean install of OS X Mavericks from USB

This video and article will show you how to do a clean install of OS X Mavericks from USB.

Step 1. Create a OS X Mavericks USB drive. You can do that by following the 123myIT video guide here.

Step 2. Once installed, plug the USB into the side of your computer restart the Mac and hold down the ALT or Option key on the keyboard of your Mac.

Step 3. Use the arrow keys on your Mac keyboard to navigate to the USB drive that you have plugged into your computer. Once highlighted press Enter or Return.

Mac Preboot Menu

Step 4. That will bring up the OS X Utilities menu. At this stage you can opt to format the hard drive with Disk Utilities. Make sure you backup your data before you do this as you will lose any data on the drive when you format it. If you want to know how to do a backup with Time Machine click here.

Step 5. Go back to Install OS X and follow the prompts. You will be asked to agree to Apple terms and conditions and you will also need to select the hard drive you want to do a clean install of OS X Mavericks on.

Step 6. This process should take around 30 mins depending on the speed of your Mac. The Mac will reboot a few times while this is happening.

Once the Mac restarts one last time and then you are done you will have to setup your Mac as if it was brand new from the Mac store. You will need to setup the country location, Wifi and there is also an option to transfer some files between your Mac and other computers. Then setup your Computer account.

For more information on OS X Mavericks you can check out the Apple official website here.

How to upgrade OS X Mountain Lion to Mavericks

This video will show you how to upgrade OS X Mountain Lion to Mavericks using a USB Drive.

NOTE: You will need to create a OS X Mavericks USB drive and if you want to know how to do this you can see the video here. Before going ahead make sure you backup your data just in case anything goes wrong. You can find a video on how to do this here.

Step 1 After creating the OS X Mavericks USB drive, open up the USB drive and click on the Install OS X Mavericks installer.

Step 2 Press continue on the OS X Mavericks install screen. Click Agree and Agree again.

Step 3 Select your Hard Disk that you want to upgrade to OS X Mavericks. This should be your Main Hard Drive. Then click Install and add your password if it prompts you.

Upgrade OS X Mountain Lion to Mavericks

Step 4 Once you add in your password you will start the upgrade process. The computer will reboot when it finishes installing. This process can take 30 to 40 mins depending on the speed of your computer.

Step 5 Because this is an upgrade not a clean install of OS X Mavericks all your settings and files should be the same as you left it.

Step 6 You will be prompted for you Apple ID at the log in page. You can choose to sign in or skip this page.

Apple ID Sign In

And once you have logged in you should now see your OS X upgrade from Mountain Lion.

If you want some more information you can find it on the Apple Upgrade page here.

If you want to download the upgrade of OS X Mavericks you can find it in the App store here. Just remember that you will need to be running and old version of OS X to that has App Store in the Taskbar.

Good luck and feel free to ask any questions.
Cheers
Matt