PC user trying to fix up an old Macbook

T

ThunderLord0

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My whole life I've been a PC user but I'm about to switch over for college ( A long way to say I have little to no experience with Mac, Snow Leopard, or any Apple OS). My friend's old Macbook recently died. He gave up on the old machine and said that if I can fix it I can have it. The warranty has long since past so I'm not expecting too much help from Apple or the store where he bought it. From what I can tell almost everything about the machine is intact, except the hard drive and the disc drive. I already own a hard drive I can use to replace the busted one and I've purchased a new copy of Snow Leopard for it. My problem is figuring out how to install snow leopard on to this new drive if I don't have a working disc drive in the Macbook. Right now I only have one computer to work out solutions with, this Vista PC. Any help would be much appreciated, and any help that doesn't make me dip in to my dwindling budget would be even more appreciated.
 
I struggle with calling any MacBook 'old', but just a question...
Is this really a MacBook? or, is it an iBook? That's a big difference in the work involved in replacing a hard drive. You can replace a hard drive in a MacBook in less than five minutes. The same task with an iBook, would take at least an hour.
The MacBook uses an SATA hard drive, which simply slides in. the older iBook uses an ATA (now usually called PATA) connector.
And, an iBook cannot use Snow Leopard.
Among many other differences, the iBook will have the word iBook under the screen. The Macbook will say MacBook.
 
Yes, its a Macbook. When I say old I'm referring to it as his previous Mac, not as outdated. Though, I must admit this particular machine has taken quite the beating over time. I own the SATA drive I want to replace it with, my issue is getting an OS on to it.
 
What he's tryin' to say is Snow Leopard requires an Intel processor. :)

iFixIt.com has videos to show you how to repair/replace most 'innards'. Best of luck

Additional: Get it back together and the SL install disk will have a utility to format the HD; then will install SL for you.
 
I think the OP mentioned that both the hard drive, and the disk drive (which I assume means the CD/DVD (or optical) drive do not function.
The hard drive in the MacBook is simple to replace.
The optical drive is not so simple. If you have access to an external DVD drive, then you could connect that to the MacBook, insert the Snow Leopard DVD, restart holding the Option key. You should be able to select that Snow Leopard disk in the screen that comes up. It's the Mac's boot manager, also often called the Option-boot screen. Just select the OS X installer icon, and press return.
Then, SGilbert has good tips for installing.
 
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