Non-blinking folder icon

I have an older tray-loading imac. It had been in storage for 18 months.
I pulled it out, plugged it in, and it started right up - twice.
The next day, I tried to start it up again and it now just shows a very small folder icon in the middle of the screen after the initial startup chime.
I tried installing another (used) battery, and no difference.
I tried booting up from a CD, but no luck there.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Thanks!
mark

Dear vespadisco,
the blinking folder normally means that the iMac cannot find a bootable drive to launch from. This could mean that it can't find your HD, or that your HD is failing / dead. You say that you tried to boot from a CD, was it one of the original install disks?
best wishes
Andrew Platt

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