Unable to install Snow Leopard via disk or USB drive

I have a white MacBook bought in the summer of 2008. A few weeks ago, I attempted to install Snow Leopard and got a disk error (the one where it tells you to clean the disk and start again). I returned the disk, got a replacement, tried again and got the same message. At that point, I called Apple, and the person I talked to concluded that the problem was my optical drive rather than the disk. The optical drive was replaced a year ago under warranty, and it works fine with everything but Snow Leopard. Then I decided to try to install Snow Leopard from a USB drive instead. Everything worked fine until it was restoring Snow Leopard from the CD to the USB drive (I was doing this through Disk Utility), and I got the message Restore Failure Input/Output Error. I don't know if this means that the disk is screwed up after all or that this is a different version of the same problem with my optical drive. I'm really not sure where to go next. I don't need Snow Leopard, but I'd like to be able to update, and I'm not sure what my next step is. My MacBook is my only computer, and I am reluctant to leave it for several days to have the optical drive fixed yet again, if, in fact, that's the problem. Thanks in advance for any advice.

Understood that you don't want to leave your Mac for several days to have it fixed, but ultimately this is something you probably will need to do unless you are willing to buy an external optical drive.
The failure error message probably means the optical drive is defective, although there is some small chance you got two defective DVD's in a row. If you have an Apple Store in your area, take the MacBook & the DVD in & ask them to check both. They should be willing to help you install Snow Leopard by an alternate method even if your optical drive is the problem.

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