G5 Power Mac (ppc) boots to blue screen only

Hi, I realize that this is an old machine (10 years, at least) but until a few days ago it was working fine. I use it only for the FCP Suite, which will not run on my new Intel-Based Imac.
Anyway, I was able to boot up from the CD and run both the Disk utility and the Hardware Diagnostic Test. It passed the Hardware test without problems and then the disk utility found a bunch of errors, all of which is fixed (I have run it several times and it now comes up at "ok" everytime.
Still, when I go to boot it up it takes forever and goes through the gray screen, then the blue screen, and does not go past that.
I am stuck. Any ideas about the next steps? Should I use the Firewire Target Disk Mode?
There is another internal hard drive (which also passed all the tests) and I am wondering if I should try to install the system onto that and then try to boot from that. Any ideas about that? And, if I were able to boot from that disk, any ideas whether or not I would be able to then see the primary hard drive to copy off the project I was in the middle of when it went down?
I know I have a lot of questions, but any insight would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Debbie

Hi BDAqua,
Many thanks for your thoughtful reply. I have done as you said—actually, I tried it right after I read your post—and the wheel is still spinning on the blue screen, which can't be good! It may be doing something, as previously it would go to the blue screen and eventually lose the spinning wheel, but still...
So, I had also done a reset of the PRAM and, I think, the SMU. What's next, do you think? What do you think of the idea of installing a system on the second hard drive...too risky? And is there anything I should be vacuuming, or looking at inside the whale? I saw some others had recommended that for other reasons...
Again, many thanks,
Debbie

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