Optical drive trashed and MB Pro will not boot from USB image

Hello,
New here but I have searched and tried all I know to get this MBP working right again. My disk drive is trashed and has been for some time now, this is why I have a bootable version of Snow Leopard on an 8G flash drive. When my MBP began acting funny recently and I went to disk utility to verify permissions and the disk. Both failed = must boot from disk to repair, thus my issue. For some reason by MBP will not boot from the usb image I have used previously??? Pressing C or Option during startup does not work. If I press Option, I only get the harddrive option, C yields nothing and the computer boots normally.
Please!! let me know how / what you would do to resolve this. I don't understand why I have previously been able to boot from this same file on the same drive previously to repair my disk / permissions but cannot do so now. FWIW, I tried placing the file (OSX) on my external HDD to boot from, this did not work either (USB HDD).
Thank you in advance for your input!!

It isn't clear what you mean about your HD being trashed or which disk (HD or USB drive) you are trying to repair, but either way you need to start up from your Snow Leopard installer DVD & instead of installing anything go to the Utilities menu & run Disk Utility from there to repair either or both of the disks.

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Hi cathy69:
Thank you for your inquiry. I am pleased to assist you!
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I see you are looking to change the boot order on your computer. Here is a link to 'Configuring the Boot Order in the System Bios" click here. Please let me know if you require further assistance.
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Im trying to install windows 7 on my levovo laptop because the win 8 os corrupted it gives me a blue screen saying that there has been an error. restarting please wait and it keeps on doing this everytime i launch.but i have a problem...I have a 8gb usb stick with the windows iso on it (done with windows 7 usb/dvd download tool) but it won't boot. i press the lenovo button with the needle to get onto bios and make sure my usb is first on the boot order but it wont boot from it. please help
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Go to Solution.

Hello and welcome,
You didn't say which laptop. I don't know if that will turn out to be important, but it might.
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The large print: please read the Community Participation Rules before posting. Include as much information as possible: model, machine type, operating system, and a descriptive subject line. Do not include personal information: serial number, telephone number, email address, etc. The fine print: I do not work for, nor do I speak for Lenovo. Unsolicited private messages will be ignored. ... GeezBlog
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PM8M-V will not boot from USB memory stick

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Mid-2009 MacBook Pro sees internal SATA hard drive, but will not boot from or format

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Optical drive trashed and MB Pro will not boot from USB image

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