Tried to restart on os 9, now won't start up at all

I have an old G4 desktop with OS 9.0. I bought OS 10.4.6 and installed it fine, not erasing the hard drive.
I discovered that Classic can't work unless you have 9.1 or preferably 9.2 or later, so I went and downloaded a 9.1 upgrade (intending to later get a 9.2 upgrade too). Then I went and tried to restart in 9.0 so that I could install the 9.1 upgrade, but now the computer won't start up at all.
If I hold down opt during start-up, a screen appears with three icons: a circular arrow, a hard disk w/ little Finder icon, and a right arrow.
What do I do? And is there a way NOT to erase my hard drive, or is it too late for that?
Thanks for any help... and please be detailed in responses because I don't know much about these sorts of things.

rmyself, welcome to Apple Discussions.
Did you check to see if your Mac requires a firmware (Boot ROM version) update? Mac OS X: Available firmware updates
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86117 If an update is required, the update must be installed (using OS 9) BEFORE you install OS X.
 Cheers, Tom

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