Installing Snow Leopard: A Little Puzzle

[stomp]

So, my friend's had his MacBook for quite a while now, and both its CD/DVD drive and broadband plug are broken. He said it also runs really sluggishly, so I told him I'd wipe it and upgrade his OS for him. Now, obviously, since the drive is busted (there's actually a disk stuck in there), I can't just pop in the Snow Leopard disk.

I have tried two things:
1) sharing my own disk drive over the network and letting his computer read the SL disk from my computer, but this didn't work, as I sort of expected it wouldn't, because as soon as the computer restarts to begin the installation, the network connection closes.
2) I ripped my SL disk to my computer as a .dmg and restored it to a partition on my external HD. The odd part is that when I boot up his computer with the drive plugged in, it doesn't seem to mount the drive until after the OS is started up. Thus the "OSX Install Disk" doesn't show up on the boot-option screen after pressing "option" during start-up.

I realize that I can buy an 8gb flash drive and get around all this pretty easily, or perhaps get a firewire cable to run target-disk mode (which I'm not very familiar with), but just I'm curious if there are any (free) hidden tricks, even if complicated, to get this done. Thanks!

 

[ELMI0001]

What type of MacBook is it? The new 13" Air and Pro models have SD slots which could be another method.

Like you stated, I'd go with the USB Flash. I like MicroCenter for cheap parts I won't use often - if there is one near you.

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0280099

^out of stock, but a cheap USB stick is the way I'd go.

OR - bring it into an Apple Store to look at all the broken pieces to the machine.

 

[plumosa]

when you put the dmg on the external, did you mount it first before you restored it?

 

[Fishrrman]

"So, my friend's had his MacBook for quite a while now, and both its CD/DVD drive and broadband plug are broken. He said it also runs really sluggishly, so I told him I'd wipe it and upgrade his OS for him. Now, obviously, since the drive is busted (there's actually a disk stuck in there), I can't just pop in the Snow Leopard disk."

Do you have firewire on BOTH his Mac and on your Mac?

If you DO, use firewire target disk mode.

There is no easier way to do what you're trying to do.

 

[iVoid]

I wonder if the slugishness is the computer constantly trying to read the stuck disc?

 

[rkw0211]

So, my friend's had his MacBook for quite a while now, and both its CD/DVD drive and broadband plug are broken. He said it also runs really sluggishly, so I told him I'd wipe it and upgrade his OS for him. Now, obviously, since the drive is busted (there's actually a disk stuck in there), I can't just pop in the Snow Leopard disk.

I have tried two things:
1) sharing my own disk drive over the network and letting his computer read the SL disk from my computer, but this didn't work, as I sort of expected it wouldn't, because as soon as the computer restarts to begin the installation, the network connection closes.
2) I ripped my SL disk to my computer as a .dmg and restored it to a partition on my external HD. The odd part is that when I boot up his computer with the drive plugged in, it doesn't seem to mount the drive until after the OS is started up. Thus the "OSX Install Disk" doesn't show up on the boot-option screen after pressing "option" during start-up.

I realize that I can buy an 8gb flash drive and get around all this pretty easily, or perhaps get a firewire cable to run target-disk mode (which I'm not very familiar with), but just I'm curious if there are any (free) hidden tricks, even if complicated, to get this done. Thanks!

I don't think that Mac's can boot from USB. They didn't used to anyway.

 

[soLoredd]

I don't think that Mac's can boot from USB. They didn't used to anyway.

They've been able to for a few years now. At least since 10.5

Target Disk Mode is the best for what you are trying to do. It's an invaluable tool.

 

[Damo01]

as aforementioned...There are only two options you can do.

1. You can boot off an installation Mac OS X Media image externally using USB or firewire and install or upgrade Mac OS X or use target mode and don't get the damaged hardware repaired.

The second option you can do is take it to Genius Bar and get the hardware (CD/DVD) repaired replaced.

 

[stomp]

Well, I just went the USB option. Not too fun, but worked like a charm.