Unable to Install 10.4.10 on External Hard Drives

I have an iMac 24" 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo and I have been trying to install OS X 10.4.10 on to any of the 5 external hard drives I have so that I can boot from them as an alternative to booting from the internal hard disk.
When I boot from the Mac OS X Install disc that came with my Alum iMac, the install program tells me that I can not install the Mac OS on any of the drives! Now, on my old QuickSilver G4, I was able to install any and all versions of the Mac OS (9 & X) and would be able to boot from the external HDs. Why can't I do this with my new Alum iMac?
Has Apple disabled this feature or is there some reason that an Intel Mac can't do this? If there is a way to do this, can someone please inform me how I need to go about it?
Thank you for any help or light that you can shed on this subject.
Rod Souza

I'm sure that you just need to reformat the drive. Intel HDs are formatted differently than PowerPC drives
Open Disk Utility and select your external hard drive in the left column display. In the lower right, look for Partition Scheme. If it doesn't say "GUID Partition Table" you need to make it the proper format. Choose the Partition pane just below the Toolbar. Name your external hard drive and select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format. Toward the bottom of the window, click the "Options..." button. Select "GUID Partition Table" and click OK. At the bottom of the Partition pane press Apply. 

When it finishes it should be ready to install Mac OS X.

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