Ibook G4 OS 10.4.11 wont boot up.

I was deleting a second user account and whilst it was copying that user's files before deleting the power was switched off. Starting now gives the flashing question mark icon after the start up chime. It wont boot up from the instal disc either (holding c while powering up). I also tried command-option-p-r at power up with no effect, and option key with the install disc to use the hardware test. This last gave me an arrow cursor but nothing else. The user guide suggests that the only option is to reinstall the operating system but to do this it needs to read the install disc which it can't. Help.

The new disc finally arrived from Apple - labeled "Mac OS Tiger DVD 2Z691-5599A".
- Inserted disc and start up holding C key ... sounds of disc being active followed eventually by flashing question mark. If "disc eject" button is pressed the question mark stops flashing.  The only available action is to switch off with power button.
- restart holding down option key (to try hardware test) ... again sounds of active disc, this time followed by blank screen with movable arrow cursor. This time apple-control-power was effective - not to restart but to shut down.
- ejecting disc by starting whilst pressing mouse pad works.
- shutting down seems to vary .. sometimes just a quick press of power button, sometimes has to be held for a few seconds before shutting down.
Maybe Apple have sent the wrong disc?
There is a repeated quiet clicking throughout which I interpret as the hard disc trying to run. It seems like the hard disc needs a little nudge like the needle in a scratch on a vinyl LP!
Reading more from http://support.apple.com suggested a few things to try:
- start up in single user mode (holding Command-S) : failed
- start up in safe mode (holding shift key) : failed
Back to the OSX 10.5.6 install DVD I tried previously: this seems to work and gave a utilities menu:
- "System profiler" found the hard disc under serial ATA - Intel ICH7-M AHCI
- "Disc utility" failed to find it.
- "Terminal" loaded but when I tried to enter sudo nvram boot-args="-x" as suggested to start in safe mode it returned "command not found" so that got nowhere.
- "Restore system from backup" utility isn't active, presumably because it doesn't recognize a hard drive to restore it to?
I have an external hard disc used for some back up. When I connected it to the USB port both system profiler and disc utility found it ok but "start up disc" utility didn't. Unfortunately it doesn't have a system on it. If it did could I start up from it and would that help? How would I install a system onto it? (I'm typing this on an oldish Powermac G4 desktop running OSX 10.4.11)
I will phone Apple first opportunity to check the correctness of the disc. However I do wonder if it can be any better than the 10.5.6 disc anyway.
It seems that what I need is some way of getting access to the hard disc.
Sorry for the length of this - but any more suggestions would be much appreciated.
Adam

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