Macbook Pro Problems (older generation not unibody)

[Cadence]

Hi guys,
my friend has a problem with her Macbook Pro 15" non-unibody, the generation before it with the DVI port,
first she installed Snow Leopard and then it stopped booting properly. She thought it was a harddrive problem so she installed a Western Digital 500GB (she doesn't remember which line) probably Black Caviar line since she apparently paid $65-70 for it (unless she got really ripped off).

Then she took it to the Apple store and an employee tried to install Snow Leopard on it and it wouldn't boot after either.
Any suggestions? I haven't personally ripped into it myself yet.

 

[lowfat]

Can you give us a specific model? Do any other versions of OSX install properly?

 

[m1dget]

...and the or any employee at the Apple store didn't help her with the issue?

If you go in the EFI OS selection screen, do you see the OSX volume? (I don't have a Mac so I can't test for myself but it should be there iirc)

If it's there and you try to start it do you see an error message whatever it is?

 

[MacJunky]

hold down command and V when you try to boot it, verbose mode is handy.