Help w/ OS on new internal HD

I recently installed a new 60 GB HD into my little niece's Late model Macbook. It crashed and was making weird noises and i came to the conclusion that it needed changed. I think hers was 1.86ghz, not sure if it was intel but it was core duo and 512 ram? We dont have any of the instal disks. Im not sure if it was The intel mac or not. One doesnt support booting from USB i believe. Anyways, her's doesn't. I also have an earlier macbook 10.6.8, 2.0ghz intel core 2 duo, 1gb ddr2sdram, 80gb which i backed up via time machine. I tryed booting hers up by my external which is a usb HD and nothing. Just a blinking folder. I have read about the firewire but really dont understand it??? Should i copy my HD to a firewire external and then boot hers to it? Its almost christmas and she really needs her mac up and running so she can talk to her other family members that live far from her. Thanks in advance!

All MacBooks are Intel. It should boot from USB, assuming the drive is formatted properly. Make sure you're holding the Option key down as soon as you turn it on to show all available boot volumes.

If all else fails, pick up a copy of Snow Leopard (10.6) - it'll run you about $29. You'll need to bump the memory up, but that machine is still serviceable, you might as well bring it up to modern standards.

Ill have to look into making sure if i got it on the external usb HD right then... I have already tryed holding the opt button 100 times and nothing. I know time machine backed it up but maybe ill have to do some work on it??

chazzx11 said:

... I have already tryed holding the opt button 100 times and nothing.

Click to expand...

The "Option" key method comes into play only if you have more than one HD connected to your computer with a "bootable" OS on it.

- Nick

Ok, thanks for the info... I just hooked my external up and the only thing thats on it is the time machine backup. It was like 40-50gb. That is my OS and everything thats on my computer right now. If thats the only thing on the 320gb freeagent go HD then it should boot on the computer with clear HD right. As far as partition and volumes, i understand a little but thats all. Not really educated in this kind of stuff but im trying. Google, youtube, etc etc... As far as pressing buttons at startup, i shouldn't have to right? Thanks once again for everyones help. I feel that im getting closer and actually learning something

chazzx11 said:

I just hooked my external up and the only thing thats on it is the time machine backup. It was like 40-50gb. That is my OS and everything thats on my computer right now. If thats the only thing on the 320gb freeagent go HD then it should boot on the computer with clear HD right.

Click to expand...

Not exactly. Not all Time Machine backups are "bootable". If you want a "bootable" Time Machine backup...you have to do some special prep ahead of time:

Use Time Machine To Create A Bootable Backup | New Mac User

I'm guessing that your Time Machine backup is a "backup" of your niece's MacBook HD (which is a "good thing")...but it was probably not setup as a "Bootable" backup...thus it will not show up as a bootable hard drive when you press the option key.

- Nick

Ok ill try that but thats only if you get the startup disk to work right? When i put the disk in, it reads it but it says that i dont have enough memory? Its a new 60gb HD with nothing on it. Could i try putting it in my mac and somehow instal the OS on there then switch it her mac? I am at my wits end