IMac G4:  How to re-format without a CD Drive?

I have had an old iMac for years and it's bee gathering dust.  I would like to wipe the hard drive and restore Tiger to factory settings but the disc drive inside will not read.  Is there a way to re-format and re-install without the need for the discs? 
Cheers!
Eóin

Maybe, if you have another Mac, and it has a working optical drive, and it has a FireWire port.  You may be able to do it using FireWire Target Disk Mode (FTDM)
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1661
There are two way this might work...
(1) The better way would be to start up the OTHER Mac in FTDM and connect it to the iMac G4 with a FireWire cable.  Insert the Tiger installation disc in the other Mac.  Start up the iMac G4 with the Option key held down to go to the Startup Manager screen.  If the Tiger installation disc is available on that screen, select it and continue startup.  On the Installer screen, you can run the installation onto the iMac's hard drive.  If necessary, you can run Disk Utility from the Utilities menu (in Installer) to erase the hard drive first.  Make sure you are erasing the iMac G4's hard drive, not the other Mac's hard drive!
Note:  Depending on the Mac being used in FTDM, the optical drive may or may not be available on the "host" Mac.
(2) The other way will NOT work, if the OTHER Mac is a newer Intel Mac.  If it's a PowerPC Mac (that can run Tiger), it should work.  Start up the iMac G4 in FTDM.  Connect it to the other Mac started up normally, and confirm that the iMac G4's hard drive volume appears on the other Mac's Desktop.  If necessary, you can use Disk Utility to erase the iMac's hard drive.  Insert the Tiger installation disc in the other Mac and have it restart from the optical drive.  When you get to Installer, target the iMac G4's hard drive for the installation.  MAKE SURE you are NOT targeting the other Mac's hard drive for the installation!  This method is a bit less desirable, because the Mac that will use the system is not performing the installation.  But I have done it before with Tiger, and it has worked.  Mac OS X Tiger systems seem "universal" between Macs that are PowerPC, but NOT between a Intel Mac and PowerPC Mac.

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