Can't erase my old MacBook Pro

You need the original disks that came with the computer when it was new or the retail Snow Leopard disk in order to do a factory reset. The keyboard shortcuts only work for Lion or later.

You can purchase Snow Leopard through the Apple Store: Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard - Apple Store (U.S.). The price is $19.99 plus tax. You will be sent physical media by mail after placing your order. After you install Snow Leopard you will have to download and install the Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1 to update Snow Leopard to 10.6.8 and give you access to the App Store.

Snow Leopard Erase and Install

1. Insert Snow Leopard DVD into the optical drive and restart the computer.
2. Immediately upon hearing the chime hold down the C key.
3. Release the key when the Apple logo appears and wait for the loading to finish.
4. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue  button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.  After Disk Utility loads select the out-dented disk entry from the side list (mfgr.'s ID and drive size.)  Click on the Partition tab in the Disk Utility’s right window.  Set the number of  partitions to (1) from the drop down menu. Click on Options button and select GUID, click on OK, set the format type to MacOS Extended, Journaled. Click on the Security Options button and set it for one-pass then click on the OK button. Finally, click on the Apply button.
5.  After formatting has finished quit Disk Utility.  Continue with the OS X installation and follow the directions.
6.  When the installation has finished the computer will restart into the Setup Assistant. After you complete the Setup Assistant you will be running a fresh installation of Snow Leopard 10.6.3. Open Software Update and install the recommended updates.

Download and install Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.

S_H44 wrote:

I do not have the snow leopard DVD but I do have the original disks that came with my computer. I put one in and it made some weird noises for a while and then ejected itself. I tried again with the other disk and quickly restarted the computer and held down c, but the same thing happened while on the startup screen.

Sounds like the optical drive may be dirty or defective, or there is an issue with the DVD.

I can't install Etcher on the computer. When I click on it to install it tries to open another webpage that my computer says it can't open.

You could use another computer to "burn" the .iso file to USB using Etcher. Etcher can be run from a Windows computer or a Mac running macOS 10.10+.

You can also use the Terminal app to "burn" the .iso file to a USB drive.

First you need to get the drive identifier for your USB drive. Use the following command to locate the drive identifier (press the "Return" key to activate the command):

diskutil  list

Once you have the drive identifier for the USB drive you will use the following command as a template to unmount the USB drive. Replace "diskX" with the actual drive identifier for your USB drive.

diskutil  unmountDisk  diskX

The next command will "burn" the Parted Magic .iso file to the USB drive.

Here is the template of the command:

sudo  dd  if=<path-to-PartedMagic.iso>  of=/dev/diskX

You can begin by typing the following (do not press "Return" yet):

sudo  dd  if=

Now drag & drop the Parted Magic .iso file from the Finder onto the Terminal window so it auto-fills the correct path to the .iso file. Then make sure there is at least one space after the path to the .iso file and type the following where you replace "diskX" with the drive identifier for your USB drive:

of=/dev/diskX

Assuming the the Parted Magic .iso file is located in the Downloads folder and is named "pmagic_2013-08-01.iso" and assuming the drive identifier for the USB drive is "disk1", then the command will look something like this:

sudo  dd  if=/Users/hwtech/Downloads/pmagic_2013-08-01.iso  of=/dev/disk1

When you activate the command you will be prompted for your admin password. You will not see any characters on the screen as you type your password so after entering your password press the "Return" key to submit it.

Create a bootable Parted Magic USB drive using Etcher (Mac/Windows/Linux). Option Boot the USB drive and select the orange icon labeled "EFI". Once at the Parted Magic desktop there should be an icon on the Desktop for erasing drives. Double-click on the icon to launch the app. You can get the last free version of Parted Magic from the MajorGeek's website here.

Then you will need to order the retail copy of Snow Leopard as I explained earlier.

FWIW: The OP wants to give this computer away or sell it. It's of no use to another user unless they can restore the OS. That means the OP needs to get the Snow Leopard DVD to provide to the next user.

I fully understand the instructions you have provided but they may be a bit much if the next user doesn't know what to do.

Just something for consideration, HW.

It was unclear in the original post since "getting rid of it" can mean just recycling it. I should have added that clarification to my own post though. Thanks for pointing it out. :-)