Reinstall Snow Leopard on a crashed Macbook A1181

[Teks0427]

Hi! My Macbook's Snow Leopard installation somehow crashed and now, it won't boot up on OS X, not even in safe mode. I can only get it to boot on Windows. How can I reinstall Snow Leopard using a USB?

All the guides I've read says that I have to format the USB drive using Mac's Disk Utility. Since my Mac won't boot up, that's out of the question. Is there any other way to do this?

I hope someone can help me out...

Thanks a lot in advance!

 

[Altemose]

Hi! My Macbook's Snow Leopard installation somehow crashed and now, it won't boot up on OS X, not even in safe mode. I can only get it to boot on Windows. How can I reinstall Snow Leopard using a USB?

All the guides I've read says that I have to format the USB drive using Mac's Disk Utility. Since my Mac won't boot up, that's out of the question. Is there any other way to do this?

I hope someone can help me out...

Thanks a lot in advance!

You need a Mac to make the USB installer. You can use the original restore disks to reload OS X but it may be a older version like Leopard or Snow Leopard. Though, this maybe a sign of a hard drive failure!

 

[Teks0427]

You need a Mac to make the USB installer. You can use the original restore disks to reload OS X but it may be a older version like Leopard or Snow Leopard. Though, this maybe a sign of a hard drive failure!

Thank you very much for the help. Please bear with me as I'm a Mac newbie, having been on a Mac for less than a month, which is why I'm not yet familiar with whatever quirks it may have. I've been using PCs since the 80s though.

The original Snow Leopard discs were left behind in the US when the Macbook was brought to the Philippines, so I guess that rules out that option. I can buy them at the Mac store here if necessary. I have a copy of the ISO (or whatever Apple calls them), which is what I was planning to install on a USB drive.

What had me worried was your mention of HDD failure. I hope it's not.

Thank you again. I'll keep you posted.

 

[Altemose]

The original Snow Leopard discs were left behind in the US when the Macbook was brought to the Philippines, so I guess that rules out that option. I can buy them at the Mac store here if necessary. I have a copy of the ISO (or whatever Apple calls them), which is what I was planning to install on a USB drive.

What had me worried was your mention of HDD failure. I hope it's not.

Thank you again. I'll keep you posted.

If it is a .iso file you can burn that using a PC. I believe you need a dual layer DVD for the image to burn. If you were to make a USB installer you would need a Mac to restore the image using Disk Utility.

OS X does not get corrupted easily and neither does modern versions of Windows. I am not saying it couldn't happen but most of the time when a machine stops booting out of the blue it is a hardware issue. Fortunately, A1181 MacBooks have an extremely easy RAM and hard drive replacement if necessary. Did you just buy this MacBook?

 

[Teks0427]

If it is a .iso file you can burn that using a PC. I believe you need a dual layer DVD for the image to burn. If you were to make a USB installer you would need a Mac to restore the image using Disk Utility.

OS X does not get corrupted easily and neither does modern versions of Windows. I am not saying it couldn't happen but most of the time when a machine stops booting out of the blue it is a hardware issue. Fortunately, A1181 MacBooks have an extremely easy RAM and hard drive replacement if necessary. Did you just buy this MacBook?

It's a gift from an aunt and was brought here by my mom. I haven't really played with it much yet actually. When I got it, it was booting up fine until a couple of days ago. If it was a PC based unit, I'd know what to do.

I hope it's nothing serious more serious than a hard drive failure. A normal SATA drive would work, right?

Thank you...

 

[Altemose]

It's a gift from an aunt and was brought here by my mom. I haven't really played with it much yet actually. When I got it, it was booting up fine until a couple of days ago. If it was a PC based unit, I'd know what to do.

I hope it's nothing serious more serious than a hard drive failure. A normal SATA drive would work, right?

Thank you...

Yes. A regular 2.5" SATA drive is in these MacBooks.

 

[Teks0427]

I got the OS X Snow Leopard discs. Booted the Mac up, pressed "Option", selected the Installer disc, got up to the part where it asks for the language, I selected English, then continue, then an error popped out.

Mac OS X can't be installed on this computer.​

Formatted the partition, restarted, same error came up...

Any form of help would be very much appreciated. I'm getting a bit frustrated here now.

Thank you!

 

[Nermal]

What colour is the DVD? White (with a picture of a snow leopard on it) or grey?

 

[Teks0427]

What colour is the DVD? White (with a picture of a snow leopard on it) or grey?

It's the white one. Is there a difference? I'm sorry, I'm really a Macbook newbie here. I've been around IBM based PCs for more than 20 years and less than 60 days around Macs...

Thank you.

P.S. It's version 10.6.3

 

[Nermal]

White is good (grey ones only work on the same model of system that they were bundled with, but white ones work on any compatible system). The other common problem is trying to use a DVD that's older than your computer, but model A1181 predates Snow Leopard so that's not the problem either.

I'm not sure what to suggest next, but hopefully someone else will have an idea.

 

[Teks0427]

Maybe I should try and borrow a different installer since there might be something wrong with this one. The problem is, Macs are not as popular here in the Philippines as it is in the US, which makes finding another Mac user here a bit hard.

My last resort would be to bring it to the Mac shop here and have it checked out there. I hope it's not something wrong with the hardware or anything. Everything in there's pricey...

Thank you...