Restoring/Formatting Mac

So I want to reformat my mac...first off I just want to know if its necessary...I've had it for 4 years now and never done a restore(which is quite incredible cause before this mac I had a windows pc and probably had to reformat once every 3 months) but I just filled my harddrive completly full. I bought a new harddrive and transfered my music onto it and free'ed up a bunch of space. Im sure I have a lot of usless programs i also don't use. Is it necessary to restore, if so, what is the easiest way to do it?
Also all my family members have recently bought new mac's and all of them have tiger but i don't...my sister got a new powerbook and i was wondering if I would be able to use her software restore disk she got with her powerbook on mine so I could get tiger?
Thanks for your help
15' Titanium Powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.2.x)

Hello Good people on this Mac Forum.
I need your help. Here's the situation:
I'm running OS 10.3.9 on my powerbook G4, which I divided into 5 partitions when I first set it up, a couple of years ago now.
The trouble is that as I grow and my computer grows with me, the partition where I store my hard drive files just isn't big enough to keep up (I have less than 1GB free on this drive and obviously keep getting 'full' messages).
I've already moved most of my applications out onto another drive (months ago now), which has caused various small problems (e.g. I can't open PhotoShop or Dreamweaver files without opening the application first), but the hard drive keeps exanding as I receive emails and blah blah and now it's to the point where I don't even have room on my hard drive partition to receive a podcast, or download a new album to iTunes.
I have plenty of room on other partitions, so my thought is to get rid of the partitions altogether and open my computer up into one large hard drive disc again.
The folks at AppleCare have told me I need to boot from my Software Install and Restore disc and erase the whole disc; then go through the re-installation process.
The problem is that installing from my 'Software Install and Restore' disc will take me back to where I was when I bought the computer (Jaguar), while I am currently running Panther with the benefit of all those years of software updates, etc. I would like to save myself the time and trouble of redoing all this work if at all possible.
I've backed up all my current files on an external drive, using Carbon Copy Cloner (which is partitioned to exactly mirror my computer). What I'd like to do is just get a clean slate on my computer and transfer everything from the external hard drive over onto it. In other words I want to have one drive on my computer, and keep everything exactly as I have it now (sans the partitions).
Has anyone done this before? The AppleCare folks can't help me with the transfer because they are officially unable to advise on anything involving third party software (in this case CCC). They suggested I come here with my question, where people are not constrained by the same rules.
I had originally imagined I could just go through the installation process with my 'install and restore' disc, and then drag and drop (or clone) my backed up files over the new install, replacing them, but they said there might be problems with that. Has anyone had experience with this?
Another solution might be to erase my computer's hard disc, and then boot up from my external drive and clone the backed up files directly onto the empty disc. Would that work? I'm not sure how to boot up from my external drive, or make sure that those files are bootable, however.
Unfortunately I can't find my Panther OS install disc (it's somewhere in a box in the basement that I haven't unpacked since moving), which I'm sure would make the whole thing easier.
Any thoughts or advice for would be very much appreciated.
PowerBook G4 Mac OS X (10.3.9) 17"

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Apple Store Customer Service at 1-800-676-2775 or visit online Help for more information.
To contact product and tech support: Apple - Support - Contact Apple Support.
Install Mavericks, Lion, or Mountain Lion Using Internet Recovery
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Boot to the Internet Recovery HD:
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Partition and Format the hard drive:
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3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed. Quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion. Mavericks: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion, Mavericks and click on the Install button. Be sure to select the correct drive to use if you have more than one.
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Download and install an updated EFI Firmware ROM for these computers to use the OS X Internet Recovery feature:
MacBook Pro (13-inch, Early 2011)
MacBook Pro (15-inch, Early 2011)
MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2011)
iMac (21.5-inch, Mid 2011)
iMac (27-inch, Mid 2011)
MacBook (13-inch, Mid 2010)
MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2010)
Mac mini (Mid 2010)
MacBook Pro (15-inch and 17-inch, Mid 2010)
iMac (21.5-inch and 27-inch, Mid 2010)
MacBook Air (11-inch and 13-inch, Late 2010)
If your computer is older than these, then you cannot do an Internet Recovery.

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Hey Akitaskarate,
I see that you are having an issue with your ability to restore from your installation CD. I have an article for you that will help you troubleshoot this issue:
Troubleshooting Mac OS X installation from CD or DVD - Apple Support
http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201817
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Please read this whole message before doing anything.
This procedure is a test, not a solution. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.
Step 1
The purpose of this step is to determine whether the problem is localized to your user account.
Enable guest logins* and log in as Guest. Don't use the Safari-only “Guest User” login created by “Find My Mac.”
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