What OS are you trying to put on it? Easiest would probably be Linux. Make a bootable Linux installation CD (download disk image, write it to a CD) and then use a CD drive that those computers probably all have themselves, to wipe and re-partition the drives and install Linux. Or, perhaps just use CD-bootable Linux to wipe and partition the drives, and then use another OS’ boot/install CD media. But just for wiping the drives from your other computer, you can get a hard drive cradle device which you plug into your computer, and which has older-style hard drive plugs, with which you can mess with the drives from your computer. As for what’s wrong with that one laptop – it could be various things, but my first guess would be a hard drive problem. Before trying to install an OS on an old hard drive, I’d test the old hard drive to see how it is doing – it might be dying or about to die, in which case it’d tend to be a waste of effort, and a hard drive in good/better condition should be swapped in if someone’s really going to try to use the old machine.