I'm using my Powerbook G4 one night, everything is working fine. I wake up, go to use it and I get the spinning color wheel; tried to close an application by force quit and I get no response, so I restart using the power button, and the flashing question mark / mac OS icon pops up.

I immediately did some research on what to do; I put the OS cd in, tried restarting holding the C key and later the X key; nothing. Tried resetting PRAM, didn’t solve the problem. Tried holding command-S to check disk/repair, didn’t work. I then held the option key to choose the location to boot off: and neither the HD nor cd showed up: just the circular arrow to re-scan, and the straight arrow to enter the selection.

I have 2 install discs: I'm not sure if they are the same or not; I may have put the wrong one in. So I tried to eject it and now it wont eject.

Firstly, how to eject the cd? I tried holding the eject button, F12, command + . , as well as the trackpad button. I don’t see a place to put a pin or paperclip in like some cd drives have to force it open.

Secondly, what else can I try to get my computer working? I'm no expert, but it sounds like this might be a hardware problem aside from the HD, being that the computer is not recognizing neither HD nor cd. However, the cd I have is a copy of the OS disc I made, and it may or may not be the right install disc, or properly made copy.

How difficult is it to open up Powerbooks and replace the HD? I'd like to have it up and running as soon as possible, but most importantly I hope that my data is still safe. And no, unfortunately I hadn't backed up my data. Please advise.

...you could get another hd and try to install the os on there ...slave the old hd and see what you can recover

this happened to my ibook. took it into the genius bar and he basically told me my hard drive died.. cost me over 300 to send it out to repair because i was hella afraid to open the case.. good luck!