Emac wont boot from cd or hard drive & display qeustion mark ?

Hello, if someone can please help me.
I have an emac which is purchased in 2003, it has ran OSX 10.4 for around a year. Recently i clean installed the hard drive, but the installation kept failing.
When I restarted the computer a flashing qeustion mark in a folder alternating with the mac face logo appeared. If _ hold C down during startup - it wont start from the original OSX 10.2 that came with it either.
I dont know what to do, I've searched every corner of the web looking for a solution.
Thanks,
P.S I've even attempted removing the hard drive - then trying C at startup - still the same qeustion mark flashing!

If you have access to another Firewire-equipped Mac, it would be easier to use FireWire target disk mode with the other Mac as the Host and the eMac as the target. If the eMac's HD appears in target disk mode, first use the host Mac's Disk Utility to check the drive status in the eMac. If the eMac drive's SMART status is reading anything in red, your obvious next step is a replacement hard drive.
If you were attempting to boot from a retail black-label OS X 10.4 install disc, the eMac certainly should have recognized that unless the optical drive has gone bad as well. Have you checked the eMac's PRAM battery? It should read within 0.1v of the nominal 3.6v value while under load (e.g., still in the eMac battery holder). A failed or weal PRAM battery is a classic reason for a Mac failing to start up properly.
Replacing a failed PRAM battery should suffice in itself to revive the Mac. In some cases it may be necessary to carefully reset the PMU (see step 6 in eMac: How to Replace the Backup Battery).
After checking the PRAM battery, see if resetting PRAM helps; hold down command-option-p-r while starting up until you hear three sets of chimes, then release the keys.

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FireWire
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Volume
Disk Identifier :
disk1s2
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Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
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FireWire
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Apple_HFS
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