Having trouble formatting MBP

[duckingfrunk]

I have a sept 2009 macbook pro 13" i'm trying to clean it up reformat the harddrive then reinstall OSX 10.6. I have a factory version of the mac install disk that came with my newer imac 27" (ab 6 mos old). The mbp already has snow leopard on it so it is definitely capable of running it although when i try running the os install it says it's not? Even though they are 2 different computers the operating system runs the same right? writing out this problem shows me how it can't work, but are there still any suggestions how i can make this possible?

 

[Makosuke]

The discs that come in the box with a Mac, with few exceptions, will only install on the same model that they came with. This is, I assume, why your iMac disc won't work with your MBP.

There may be a hack of some kind to get around this--you might try Googling for it--but it might be easier to just find the Snow Leopard disc you used to install 10.6 on the MBP. If you didn't actually buy a legit copy of Snow Leopard when you originally upgraded, it's only $29; if you lost it, you might try to bum a copy off a friend for long enough to install.