os upgrade from a external drive

[Sundance2007]

A friend has a Macbook he got cheap for his daughter. The CD/DVD drive will not read any discs. You put a disc in and after a while it ejects it or gives a message it can't read the disc.

Can you upgrade the os from an external CD/DVD drive.

It will cost over $200 to have the drive replace so it's not really an option but you can find external drives for 50 buck.

Thanks

 

[0007776]

Yes you can, I've done it before.

 

[Hellhammer]

http://www.maciverse.com/install-os-x-snow-leopard-from-usb-flash-drive.html

As long as he has another computer with a working DVD drive, yes, it can be done.

 

[iThinkergoiMac]

Even an external USB DVD drive will work.

 

[Weaselboy]

You can also install Snow Leopard from a 8GB thumb drive. Instructions here.