No Boot

Ok so i put a hdd with osx 10.4 on it in my g4 and i tried to boot but it stays at a white screen or sometimes it will go to a screen with a foler that has like the mac face thing then a question mark and it does that forever
can anyone help me to get my mac booted up
(i dont have the install disk for the os)

can some1 plz help me

Just for clarification, did the HDD already have OS 10.4 installed before you connected it to your G4?

yes i think that might be the problem do i have to reinstall the os like is it like a windows pc and the os installs to the settings and hardware of that specific pc?
plz dont hate me for this i am new to macs