How to boot up from Install disk when DVD drive is dead

Hi-

My G4 tower was working fine this morning and then froze when I switched on an external G-tech harddrive via FW800 (something I do on this machine every day...).

Now it won't restart - I get the gray Apple and then 'stop sign' thing. I have tried all the usual - pram, unplugged peripherals etc. but no good - it also won't start in safe mode. I think I need to reboot using the Install disk - but my DVD drive is busted (this is an old machine...).

So, my thoughts are this - can I install the OS on a flash drive - it is 10.4 (as I said, its old!) - and then boot from there? I tried this but could not get it to work.

My other plan - I currently have my tower connected as an external drive to my laptop - via the T key on startup - so I can rescue files no problem. But, I am wondering if there is a way to boot my tower from this situation? Or, is there any disk utility stuff I can try safely via the laptop? So, far I haven't figured it out so any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

You can boot from that G-tech firewire drive, the only problem being to select it as the boot volume.

Or - you can try booting in Target mode from your laptop with the 10.4 disk in its optical drive.

You can also run Disk Utility from the 10.4 Install disk in your laptop, while it's in Target mode, to check the G4's hard drive.

If all else fails try the following:
1. Immediately after powering up the G4 press command (Apple) and S simultaneously to enter single user mode.
2. When the text stops scrolling by type fsck -fy and press return.
3 An attempt will be made to repair the drive. The bottom of the screen will indicate whether errors were repaired. If it says the drive is OK attempt to reboot. If not repeat step 2.

You may have to do this several times to clear all of the errors.