My Macbook G4 froze last night and

Hope someone can help. My Macbook G4 froze last night while I was using Firefox. Nothing would work, and even the spinning colorwheel stopped spinning. I was unable to turn it off. This morning my husband took the battery out, and put it back in again. Now I can turn it on and off, but all that happens is that I get a grey screen with a tiny "finder " icon in the middle. The icon switches from finder to a question mark every few seconds. When I first restarted it, the computer made some scratching noises, but since then it turns on and off quietly, but I can't get beyond the small icon.
Does anyone know what this might be?

First of all, it's not a MacBook if it's a G4. It's a PowerBook or iBook. If it is a MacBook, it is Intel, not PowerPC G4.

The flashing question mark means the computer can't find an OS. From the sound you described, it sounds like your hard drive may have failed. It will probably need to be replaced, and I am not sure what chances you will have of recovering your data.

G'day and welcome to the Forums.

Firstly pop in the install DVD for whatever system you are using ~ don't think it is in fact OS X.0 as this was only a beta release. Restart and hold down 'C' immediately after chime.

If the machine boots from the install disc, go to Utilities in the menu bar and run Repair Disk from Disk Utility and see what the bstate of the HDD is. Something may have been corrupted during the freeze.

Keep us posted?