Confused - when my mac boots the apple comes up

when my mac PowerBook G4 boots the apple comes up like normal but then soon after a grey school appears with the finder icon flashing and then a ? mark after that.
When i tried to restore my computer with the disk it couldn't find the main hard drive. please help and thnx

The Leopard installer may turn off the display, but actually not turn off the machine if you leave it alone in the middle of the installation. If you attempted to force reboot the machine while it was still installing, you may leave your machine in limbo.
Instead, next time you go through an installation after an erase and install from the original discs, simply hold the shift key if the screen goes blank during installation, to ensure it hasn't just gone to sleep.

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    First, back up all data immediately, as your boot drive might be failing.
    Step 1
    This diagnostic procedure will query the log for messages that may indicate a system issue. It changes nothing, and therefore will not, in itself, solve your problem.
    If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.
    Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:
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    Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.
    Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
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    ☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
    ☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
    Paste into the Terminal window (command-V). I've tested these instructions only with the Safari web browser. If you use another browser, you may have to press the return key.
    The command may take a noticeable amount of time to run. Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign (“$”) to appear.
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    If you have a portable computer, check the cycle count of the battery. It may be due for replacement.
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    Check your keychains in Keychain Access for excessively duplicated items.
    Boot into Recovery mode, launch Disk Utility, and run Repair Disk.
    If you have a MacBook Pro with dual graphics, disable automatic graphics switching in the Energy Saverpreference pane for better performance at the cost of shorter battery life.
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