HELP! CD player suddenly won't boot any startup disk.

Help! I am being swamped with problems stemming from my attempt to upgrade to OS X. Can anyone help me plug the holes in my boat? I am including as much info as I can because I notice that requests like mine often generate a lot of questions about basic things. So, here it goes ... and thanks for your thoughts, Ed T. in Newburyport, MA. OK to send ideas to me [email protected]
Goal: install OX 10.3.5 (Panther) on my Mac G4 Ethernet Gigabit machine by booting from the CD install disk. I am using a full retail version (black with silver “X” v 10.3.5).
Problem: neither internal CD-Rom not external Fire Wire CD-ROM player/recorder will boot from 9.1 or 9.2 startup disks. These disks (DiskWarrior and Apple OS X insdatll disk #1) booted OK until I made upgrade preparations to get G4 and OS 9.2.2.
About two weeks ago I installed ViaVoice v2.01 Enhanced Edition and did a practice reading. I just mention this in case it might be relevant.
After installing the second HD I moved all of the document files off the original HD to the new one. I left all the applications on the original HD. I ran DiskWarrior and rebuilt the desktop for each drive. I check for fragmentation and optimized the disks which ran smoothly.
Hardware: G4 Ethernet Gigabit CPU (purchased new 2001 with RAM upgraded to 256 Mb and with an internal CD-ROM player) which uses the original processor, Que Fire external CD recorder/player connected via Firewire, Airport card upgrade and white domed Airport Hub, older HP 55M laser printer connected with an Assante Bridge unit, a cable internet box (Motorola) connected to the Airport unit. Monitor (an older SONY Multiscan 100ES purchased at SeaMUG swap meet). USB 4 jack hub (Netgear Dual Speed DS104). New external hard drive (an OWC Mercury Ultra AL 250 Gb USB/Fire Wire) connected via Fire Wire cable.
Upgrade preparations - I added some new items:
1.) I increased the original 256 RAM by installing (adding) two 512 cards from Other World Computing (OWC at MacSales.com), and ...
2.) a new ATA internal 80 Gb Hitachi hard drive (also from OWC) fitted onto the “sled” atop the original 40 Gb HD. NOTE: both drives are format extended (HFS+).
Next, I backed up original 40 Gb hard drive to my new OWC Mercury 250 Gb external HD using Retrospect.
Software: I did the following activities according upgrade decision lists from MacFixit and Apple Support Discussion Group. I did the following:
1.) Updated OS 9.2.2 firmware to v4.2.8 which I downloaded from Apple,
NOTE: this procedure involved holding in the programmer’s button (the little recessed one below the big startup button and to the right of the little reboot button) and then pressing the startup button until I heard a long tone. I released the programmer’s button and the firmware update completed successfully.
2.) I did not check for external Hard Drive firmware updates because drive is one month old, but I did disconnect the Firewire cable during the following activities,
3.) I have no “haxies” to update,
4.) There was no Stuffit Deluxe software to de-activate,
5.) Removed extra start up items (ViaVoice).
6.) Disconnected all non-Apple USB hub hardware.
6.) Booted from OS X install disk ( in the internal player) and ...
7.) used Disk Utility to check/repair both hard drives.
Here is where the PROBLEMS STARTED.
8.) I intended to boot from the DiskWarrior CD in order to run its tests on both HD’s. The DISK WOULD NOT BOOT. Instead, the screen went gray and I had to eject the disk and use the restart button.
9.) Next I tried to boot from the OS X Install CD as I did before. The screen went gray, a large gray Apple logo appeared followed by a white print on BLACK KERNEL PANIC screen.
10.) Each of the CD’s seems to mount OK and I can access and use the utilities BUT I CANNOT USE THEM AS A START UP DISK ANYMORE. I have tried the “press the C key” method and the Start up Disk control panel designation method without success.
What is the best way to get back the use of the “C” key in order to boot from the CD. And, since I have two drives, could I use one as the assigned start up in system 9.2.2, and used the OS X Install disk to get the OS X onto the other disk.
My efforts to solve this problem have only made matters worse. My new HD won’t mount and can’t be repaired by Tech Tool Pro 2.5. I may have to use the file recovery feature to retrieve what files I can and then re-initialize it. The original HD is also reporting damage but so far it will start up. All the applications are on it, it is the startup disk so I cannot effectively use my tools to work on it.
Please help me to get back to dry land and install OS 10.3.5. Many thanks in advance.

Hello! First, you know now that you should never do multiple upgrades at the same time. That said I'd first look at the most likely which is an error in the hard drives. Often cable select won't work. Make sure the drive jumpered master is on the end of the ribbon away from the motherboard and the one jumpered slave is on the middle connector. New drives are usually jumpered either master or cable select and if you installed it as a slave without proper jumpering then that's the most likely place to start. Post back when you're sure the drives are physically connected properly. Tom

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