IMac with 10.4.8 hangs on boot

My wife runs a non-profit parenting organization using an iMac (700 MHz, G4, flat panel) with OS 10.4.8. Last Friday on startup, it hung within a few seconds of starting to startup. Kernel panic text covered the screen. Retry to startup gave same result. But will start and run ok in Safe Boot mode although the bootup take very, very long --and can't use search to find files and can't print --maybe other limitations with Safe Boot mode will showup. This past weekend, while running in Safe Boot mode, I was able to backup all of her files onto 8 CDs. I could just reinstall everything beginning with the OS and continue through the various applications (MSOffice, Appleworks, Photoshop Elements, etc.) but I would like to find something that wasn't so drastic to try first. Also I would like to have some idea of what happened so that this would not (hopefully) re-occur. Note --no new software or hardware has been installed in many months except for every Apple update that comes along. It does not have an AirPort card and can access the Internet using ethernet and a DSL connection. Since it started into Safe Boot, I understand that some level of disk repair has taken place. What things should I try before I wipe and reinstall?
iMac G4 700 MHz Flat Screen Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Hello --
Thanks for the suggestions. I repaired the disk. I repaired the permissions. And I ran the Apple Hardware Test Disk. The disk was fine. Many, many permissions were repaired. And the Hardware Test Disk found nothing. But, at that point, the "Hang on Boot kernel panic" continued. I then went to the suggestions in Dr. Smokes "Resolving Kernel Panics" article. Using "Cocktail" to flush the caches did the trick. The computer is booting fine again and running faster that before. As an added plus, several other annoying problems and issues have gone away. It seems clear to me that there was a problem in one or more of the caches (I have no clue as to which one) and, therefore, very early in the boot sequence, bad data was drawn upon or an attempt to find data was not possible because of damage to one of the caches. At any rate, Thank you for the suggestions --the computer is fine. (And my wife, on behalf of her non-profit parenting support program, sends you many thanks as well. She also swears that she will now carefully backup her files AT LEAST once a week.)

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