Thanks for the info (and the attention!)

1GB is the minimum required for Snow Leopard, and was not a good upgrade. That small amount will leave you with poor performance. Any decent tech would have tried to convince you to spend that small amount upgrading to 2GB to get a good working system after that upgrade.

You also haven't answered about the hard drive. Was that replaced, too?

Just a test -
Leave the USB ports empty. Shut down (not just a simple restart), then plug in one hard drive to your MacBook USB port. Make sure the power supply is plugged in to that hard drive, and the drive is turned on. Now, press and release the power button.
After you get to the desktop, can you access the external drive now?

Success
 

Tried your test - sorry, it's next morning here in New Zealand - and it worked. I got one of the HDs running.

Also, I think I may have said it's the first time I've tried to use the HDs. I'm wrong. When I got the new hard drive, I used the backup to renew all my files. So they have worked in the past.

Oh, and on reflection - yes, the hard drive was replaced....my apologies - I was so intent on the programme that was installed when the hard drive failed, I didn't answer the question and couldn't see that I hadn't....duh!

I believe that the hard drive installed on the Macbook is a new one so its having newer technology and is not compatible with the 2006 Mac System. Go through the user guide of the Hard drive you have purchased if you still have that with you else Google it and find whether the hard is compatible with your machine or not.

Ah sorry I did not saw the conversation continuing over to the next page and made my comments which is I think not related anymore. :o