How to install OSX Snow Leopard off Usb

So a family recently gave me a MacBook Core Duo that would boot up to the “?” Folder icon. I took out the hard drive and put a new one, which the MacBook recognizes. I’ve used a .dmg of 10.6.8 and 10.6.3 on usb, but the startup always ends with “OS X cannot be installed on your computer”. I don’t have the original installation disk that came with it. I’ve tried putting in a regular usb with the dmg file to restore the hard drive with it, but it says it can’t be scanned. After trying to scan it, it says that the file/directory cannot be found. Yes, I do have access to a MacBook besides this one. I’ve ordered a sata to USB adapter to use with the newer Mac, but that won’t come until May. Is there anything else that I could do to fix this?