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I have to change my hard drive on my MacBook cause the old one went out. I'm getting a 2.5 Sata hard drive. When I do this I know I will probably have to reinstall the osx, but my cd/dvd player doesn't work. How can I reinstall without using the cd's?
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Hook up to another Mac with the same type of processor (Power Mac Or Intel) in Target mode using a firewire cable to connect the two Macs. Hold down the "T" key on your MacBook to do this. Then use the DVD drive on the other Mac to install the software.
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Agreed
+ Ralph
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Using a Mac with a working DVD drive and an 8GB flash drive, use Disk Utility to create a CD/DVD master of the Snow Leopard DVD. Then still using Disk Utility, restore that .cdr to the 8GB flash drive after first making sure it's a GUID [or APM] formatted drive (can be done in the Partition tab with the Options button). This is important, as a Mac won't boot off of an MBR disk. Then insert your Snow Leopard flash drive into your MacBook, hold the option button, and select the icon that appears on the screen.
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If he has a Mac with a working drive wouldn't it be easier to connect them with a firewire cable and do a direct install? Ralph
Some MacBooks don't have firewire, but if his does, yes, it would probably be easier.
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If you don't have access to another mac you can also use an external USB or Firewire drive.
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Go to an any electronics store and buy an external USB CD/DVD drive.
Boot the installer from it. It is as little as $40.
Since your optical is not functioning, it would be handy to have an external optical drive.
Meanwhile, slap your wrist for not having a back up. Go out and buy an external USB disk as well. Back up the disk using SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner to make sure you have an external disk that you can boot.
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Using Time machine is not a bad idea either.
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